Collins  Foster 


A  Biography 


Harold  Vincent  Mulligan 


• 


MiA!' 


GIFT   OF 
Sir  Henry  Heyman 


iiiiiiiiiiiiiciiiiiiiimiiciiiiiiiiiiiHcaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicjiniiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiHcg 


G.   SCHIRMER 

NEW  YORK  •  BOSTON 


Stephen  Collins  Foster 

A  BIOGRAPHY 

oj 

AMERICA'S  FOLK-SONG 
COMPOSER 


Harold  Vincent  Milligan 


Copyright,  1920,  by  G.  Schirmer 
29113 


To  the  Memory  of  My  Father 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Illustrations  vi 

Preface  vii 

I    The  Family  1 

II    Boyhood  13 

III  Youth  26 

IV  First  Songs  39 
V    Ambition  54 

VI    Drifting  70 

VII    Tragedy  90 

VIII    The  Composer  109 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 
FRONTISPIECE 

The  Foster  Homestead  11 

"The  Old  Folks  at  Home"  34 

(Parents  of  Stephen  C.  Foster) 

Original  Version  of  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home"  61 

(Photograph  from  the  Manuscript  Book) 

Original    Version    of   "Massa's    in    de    cold,   cold 
ground"  67 

(Photograph  from  the  Manuscript  Book) 

The  Old  Kentucky  Home  72 

(Residence  of  Hon.  John  Rowan,  near  Bards- 
town,  Ky.) 

The  Last  Page  of  the  Manuscript  Book  81 

Portrait  of  Stephen  C.  Foster  88 

(From  the  daguerreotype  mentioned    in   the 
letter  of  June  15,  1859) 

Stephen  Foster  and  George  Cooper  105 

(After  an  ambrotype  taken  in  New  York  in 
1863) 

The  Grave  of  Stephen  C.  Foster  108 


VI 


PREFACE 

The  record  of  scientific  and  material  progress  in 
America  has  been  fairly  well  established,  but  in  the  fine 
arts  we  are  just  beginning  to  find  ourselves,  and  it  is 
important  that  the  story  of  our  beginnings  along  these 
lines  should  be  gathered  together  and  preserved. 

Stephen  Foster  occupies  a  unique  position  in  the 
history  of  music,  not  only  of  this  country,  but  of  the 
world.  No  other  single  individual  produced  so  many 
of  those  songs  which  are  called  "folk-songs,"  by  which 
is  meant  songs  that  so  perfectly  express  the  mood  and 
spirit  of  the  people  that  they  become  a  part  of  the  life 
of  all  the  "folk"  and  speak  as  the  voice,  not  of  an  indi- 
vidual, but  of  all.  So  completely  do  the  "folk"  absorb 
these  songs  and  adapt  them  to  their  own  uses,  that  the 
individuality  and  frequently  even  the  name  of  the 
originator  is  completely  lost,  thus  giving  rise  to  the 
erroneous  idea  that  a  "folk-song"  is  a  song  created  not 
by  an  individual  but  by  a  community.  It  is  obvious 
that  all  things  must  have  a  beginning,  however  obscure, 
and  every  folk-song  is  first  born  in  the  heart  and  brain 
of  some  one  person,  whose  spirit  is  so  finely  attuned  to 
the  voice  of  that  inward  struggle  which  is  the  history 
of  the  soul  of  man,  that  when  he  seeks  for  his  own  self- 
expression,  he  at  the  same  time  gives  a  voice  to  that 
vast  "mute  multitude  who  die  and  give  no  sign."  Such 
a  one  was  Stephen  Foster,  more  fortunate  in  his  fate 
than  that  glorious  company  of  nameless  poet-souls,  whose 
aspiration  after  "the  fair  face  of  Beauty,  haunting  all 
the  world,"  is  preserved  in  the  folk-songs  of  the  world. 
Surely  his  name  is  worthy  of  at  least  one  volume  upon 
the  shelf  of  history! 

vii 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


In  addition  to  those  names  mentioned  in  the  text,  I 
wish  gratefully  to  acknowledge  the  cooperation  of  others 
who  contributed  in  one  way  or  another  to  the  compilation 
of  the  material,  notably  Mrs.  Evelyn  Foster  Morneweck, 
of  Greenville,  Penn.,  Miss  Henrietta  Crosman,  of  New 
York  City,  Miss  Rowena  Hermann,  of  Athens,  Penn., 
and  Mr.  Robert  Garland  and  Mr.  T.  Carl  Whitmer, 
both  of  Pittsburgh.  Much  valuable  information  as  to 
dates  and  other  details  has  been  obtained  from  the 
Catalog  of  First  Editions,  compiled  by  Mr.  Oscar  G. 
Sonneck  and  Mr.  Walter  Whittlesey,  and  published  by 
the  Library  of  Congress. 

HAROLD  VINCENT  MILLIGAN. 
New  York  City,  May,  1919. 


I 

THE  FAMILY 

It  was  not  a  great  life,  as  the  world  counts  greatness. 
It  might  even  be  called  a  failure,  a  life  sadly  out  of  har- 
mony with  its  environment.  But  it  has  left  an  indelible 
impression  on  the  world,  and  its  influence,  subtle,  in- 
definite, immaterial  but  pervasive,  is  incalculable. 

If  the  philosopher  was  right  who  said,  "If  I  may  make 
the  songs  of  a  people,  I  care  not  who  may  make  the 
laws,"  then  Stephen  Foster's  name  is  worthy  of  remem- 
brance. Although  purists  may  question  their  right  to 
the  title  "folk-songs,"  his  melodies  are  truly  the  songs 
of  the  American  people,  while  their  appeal  is  so  universal 
that  the  best  of  them,  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home,"  "My 
Old  Kentucky  Home"  and  "Old  Black  Joe,"  are  sung 
the  world  over. 

The  day  of  his  birth,  July  4th,  1826,  was  a  notable 
one  in  the  history  of  the  United  States.  It  marked  the 
semi-centennial  of  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  great  preparations  had  been  made 
throughout  the  country  to  celebrate  appropriately  the 
fiftieth  birthday  of  the  Republic.  While  these  celebra- 
tions were  in  progress,  two  of  the  nation's  founders  passed 
away:  John  Adams,  its  second  President,  at  Quincy, 
Mass.,  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  its  third  President,  at 
Monticello,  Virginia. 

Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan,  the  English  historian  of 
the  American  Revolution,  says,  "There  have  been  very 
famous  Fourths  of  July;  one  of  them,  which  promised  to 
be  gloomy,  was  brightened  by  the  victory  of  Gettysburg 
and  the  capture  of  Vicksburg.  Another  was  signalized 
by  the  destruction  of  the  Spanish  fleet  outside  the  harbor 
of  Santiago.  But  there  is  one  anniversary  of  the  Declar- 
ation of  Independence,  the  interest  of  which  cannot  be 

1 


STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 


surpassed.  The  4th  of  July,  1826,  was  the  Jubilee  of 
Independence,  and  the  eyes  of  all  spontaneously  turned 
to  the  two  veterans,  so  long  divided  by  political  differ- 
ences, more  recent  indeed  than  the  Revolution,  but  al- 
ready of  ancient  date.  It  was  hoped  that  they  might 
meet  once  again,  to  shake  hands  over  their  life's  work  in 
the  presence  of  an  immense  assemblage;  some  of  whom 
might  speak  of  it  in  the  twentieth  century  as  the  most 
memorable  sight  an  American  ever  witnessed.  But  both 
were  very  feeble  and  the  hope  was  abandoned.  The 
great  day  arrived  and  the  old  statesmen,  for  all  they 
were  absent,  were  not  forgotten.  From  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other,  wherever  Americans  were  gathered 
together,  the  names  of  Adams  and  Jefferson  were 
coupled  in  accents  of  gratitude  and  praise.  Party  pas- 
sions were  completely  drowned  in  the  flood  of  national 
feeling  which  overspread  the  land.  All  day  Adams  was 
sinking  rapidly,  and  without  pain.  His  last  audible 
remark  is  said  to  have  been,  'Thomas  Jefferson  still 
survives.'  But  such  was  not  the  case.  Jefferson  died 
at  noon  on  that  Fourth  of  July,  and  Adams  shortly 
before  sunset.  There  are  few  more  striking  circum- 
stances, and  no  more  remarkable  coincidences,  in  his- 
tory." 

Synchronous  with  the  ending  of  these  two  great  lives, 
a  third  life  was  just  beginning,  a  life  destined  also  to 
exercise  a  powerful,  though  less  tangible  influence  on 
the  human  race. 

Colonel  William  Barclay  Foster  was  one  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  the  frontier  community  which  centered  in  the 
thriving  young  city  of  Pittsburgh.  His  home  at  Law- 
renceville,  on  the  hills  above  the  city,  was  naturally 
chosen  for  the  celebration  of  Independence  Day.  In 
the  assembled  crowd  were  many  veterans  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, as  well  as  survivors  of  the  War  of  1812,  and  of 
various  conflicts  with  the  Indians ;  the  woods  back  of  the 
house  were  the  scene  of  a  "barbecue,"  with  band  music 


THE  FAMILY 


and  speeches  appropriate  to  the  occasion.  Just  at  noon, 
as  the  guns  were  firing  the  national  salute,  a  son  was  born 
in  the  Foster  home,  'The  White  Cottage."  This  child 
was  named  Stephen  Collins  Foster. 

The  Foster  family  was  Scotch-Irish,  of  that  remark- 
able race  which  has  played  so  important  a  part  in  the 
history  of  this  country  and  has  produced  so  many 
leaders  in  all  lines  of  cultural  and  material  progress, 
represented  in  music  by  Stephen  Foster,  Edward  Mac- 
Dowell  and  Ethelbert  Nevin. 

Alexander  Foster,  Stephen's  great-grandfather,  was 
the  first  of  the  family  to  come  to  America.  He  emigrated 
from  Londonderry,  Ireland,  about  the  year  1728,  and 
settled  in  Little  Britain  Township,  Lancaster  County, 
Pennsylvania,  the  birthplace  of  Robert  Fulton.  Of  his 
nine  children,  the  eldest,  James,  married  Ann  Barclay 
and  removed  to  Berkeley  County,  Virginia.  It  was 
through  this  grandmother,  Ann  Barclay,  that  Stephen 
was  related  to  Judge  John  Rowan  of  Bardstown,  Ken- 
tucky, one  of  that  State's  first  United  States  Senators, 
in  whose  house  he  is  said  to  have  written  ''My  Old 
Kentucky  Home."  James  Foster,  Jr.,  served  in  the 
Continental  Army  in  the  War  of  the  Revolution  and 
was  at  Yorktown  when  the  war  was  brought  to  an  end 
by  the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis.  William  Foster, 
the  second  son  of  Alexander,  became  a  Presbyterian 
minister,  pastor  of  the  congregations  of  Octorara  and 
Doe  Run.  During  the  Revolution  his  speeches  became 
so  offensive  to  the  British  that  General  Howe  sent  a 
troop  of  horsemen  to  arrest  him,  but  this  attempt  to 
muzzle  the  "fighting  parson"  failed,  and  he  lived  to  a 
green  and  highly  respected  old  age. 

William  Barclay  Foster,  Stephen's  father,  was  the 
third  son  of  James  Foster,  and  was  born  in  Berkeley 
County,  Virginia,  in  1779.  At  the  close  of  the  war,  a 
number  of  Scotch-Irish  families  emigrated  from  Berkeley 
County  to  Western  Pennsylvania  and  settled  about 


STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 


nineteen  miles  from  the  present  city  of  Pittsburgh. 
Among  them  was  James  Foster.  Of  these  pioneers  in 
the  western  wilderness  Trevelyan  says,  "The  Scotch- 
Irish  to  the  west  of  the  Susquehanna  resided,  isolated 
and  armed,  on  farms  which  they  themselves  had  cleared, 
and  they  had  no  defence  against  a  raid  of  savages  except 
their  own  vigilance  and  courage.  A  fierce  and  resolute 
race,  they  lived  not  indeed  in  the  fear,  but  in  the  con- 
templation of  a  probability  that  their  families  might 
be  butchered,  and  the  fruits  of  their  labor  destroyed  in 
the  course  of  one  bloody  night." 

James  Foster  became  a  pillar  of  the  new  community, 
and  was  one  of  the  founders  and  original  trustees  of 
Dr.  McMillan's  Canonsburg  Academy,  founded  in  1791, 
for  a  school  of  some  kind  was  one  of  the  first  things  estab- 
lished by  these  Scotch-Irish  pioneers  wherever  they 
formed  a  new  community.  The  school-house  and  the 
Presbyterian  church  were  built  practically  simul- 
taneously with  the  dwelling-house  and  the  barn.  Thus, 
while  they  tamed  the  wilderness  to  contribute  to  their 
material  prosperity,  they  did  not  neglect  to  take  thought 
also  for  the  welfare  of  both  mind  and  soul.  Their  sons 
and  daughters  were  sent  to  school  from  rude  log-cabins 
and  their  studies  were  accompanied  by  the  sound  of 
the  pioneer's  ax  and  rifle.  This  Canonsburg  Academy 
was  the  first  outpost  of  learning  west  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  and  afterwards  grew  into  Jefferson  College, 
which  in  turn  became  the  present  Washington-Jefferson 
College. 

William  Barclay  Foster,  the  son  of  James  Foster, 
lived  in  this  new  community  until  he  was  sixteen,  pre- 
sumably imbibing  his  intellectual  nourishment  from  Dr. 
McMillan's  Academy.  Then  he,  too,  answered  the  call 
of  his  blood,  and  set  out  for  pastures  new. 

A  new  town  had  been  incorporated  shortly  before  that 
time  (1795)  at  the  point  where  the  Alleghany  and 
Monongahela  Rivers  unite  to  form  the  Ohio.  There 


THE  FAMILY 


had  been  a  fort  at  this  spot  since  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  the  location  having  been  selected 
by  Colonel  George  Washington  as  the  strategic  key  to 
the  region.  For  many  years  it  was  little  else  than  a  fort 
and  a  trading  post,  but  gradually  the  number  of  houses 
clustering  around  the  Blockhouse  increased,  until  in 
1786  the  town  of  Pittsburgh  was  laid  out,  consisting  at 
that  time  of  thirty-six  log  houses,  one  stone  and  one 
frame  house  and  five  stores.  The  town  sprang  into 
prominence  after  the  conclusion  of  the  French  and 
Indian  War,  and  upon  the  improvement  of  the  military 
roads  laid  out  over  the  Alleghany  Mountains  during  that 
struggle.  Located  on  the  main  highway  leading  to  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  it  was  the  principal  stopping-place 
in  the  journey  from  the  East  to  the  Louisiana  Country. 
The  trip  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh  consumed 
twenty  days  and  the  travel  was  by  pack-horse  and 
wagon.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
population  of  the  city  was  1565,  increasing  in  the  next 
ten  years  to  4768. 

Hither  came  young  William  Foster,  and  found  em- 
ployment with  Anthony  Beelen  and  Major  Ebenezer 
Denny,  then  partners  in  an  extensive  line  of  general 
merchandising  peculiar  to  the  frontier  trade  and  the  re- 
quirements of  the  new  and  growing  community.  Ac- 
cording to  "The  Pittsburgh  Gazette"  of  this  date,  Denny 
&  Beelen  sold  "dry  goods,  hardware,  groceries,  station- 
ery, perfumery,  china,  glass  and  queensware."  Ebenezer 
Denny  became  Mayor  of  the  city  in  1816. 

In  those  days  the  rivers  were  the  highways  of  trade, 
and  huge,  unwieldy  flat-boats  were  the  common  carriers. 
The  products  of  the  neighboring  country,  furs,  peltries, 
whiskey,  flour  and  salt,  were  loaded  on  the  flat-boats, 
which  were  floated  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers 
to  New  Orleans,  where  the  goods  were  sold  for  cash  or 
exchanged  for  a  return  cargo  of  sugar,  coffee  and  mo- 
lasses. The  Spanish  possessions  in  the  West  Indies 


STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 


took  the  bulk  of  this  river  commerce  and  the  business 
prospered  and  grew  apace. 

It  was  young  Foster's  duty  to  accompany  these  float- 
ing caravans  down  the  river,  making  on  the  average 
two  trips  a  year.  He  would  occasionally  return  over- 
land, by  way  of  Natchez,  Nashville,  Maysville  and 
Wheeling.  For  such  journeys  through  this  unsettled 
wilderness,  large  parties  were  made  up  at  the  starting- 
point,  travelling  strongly  armed,  for  the  Indians  were 
both  hostile  and  dangerous. 

At  other  times,  he  would  take  ship  at  New  Orleans, 
sailing  for  New  York.  These  journeys  brought  him  into 
a  danger  as  thrilling  and  as  terrible  as  that  offered  by 
any  marauding  band  of  Indians,  for  piracy  was  in  those 
days  a  fine  art,  and  the  voyage  led  him  straight  across 
the  heart  of  the  "Spanish  Main,"  where  were  hidden 
the  lairs  of  those  rapacious  and  blood-thirsty  pirates 
whose  horrible  deeds  have  curdled  the  blood  of  suc- 
cessive generations  of  small  boys  down  to  the  present 
day.  On  one  voyage,  indeed,  the  ship  was  actually 
captured  by  pirates  off  the  coast  of  Cuba,  and  Foster, 
with  the  other  passengers,  would  no  doubt  have  "walked 
the  plank,"  had  not  a  Spanish  man-of-war  suddenly 
appeared  in  the  best  dime-novel  fashion,  causing  the 
pirates  to  flee  for  their  lives. 

In  New  York  and  Philadelphia  he  bought  goods  for 
the  Pittsburgh  store,  and  accompanied  them  on  their 
long  westward  journey.  In  the  earlier  years  of  the  busi- 
ness, these  shipments  were  carried  over  the  mountains 
on  the  backs  of  horses.  Later,  large  six-horse  wagons  of 
the  type  known  as  "Conestoga  wagons"  were  used.  The 
driver  sat  on  one  of  the  horses  in  the  shafts,  controlling 
the  others  by  a  check-rein,  and  on  each  horse  was  a 
string  of  bells  attached  to  a  bow  above  the  collar,  "dis- 
coursing most  eloquent  music"  as  the  long  line  of  wagons 
travelled  slowly  through  the  still  forests  of  the  moun- 
tains. 


THE  FAMILY 


After  the  manner  of  his  kind,  young  Foster  applied 
himself  diligently  to  his  business,  and  in  due  time  was 
admitted  to  partnership.  On  one  of  these  Eastern  trips, 
after  he  had  become  a  part  owner  of  the  business,  he 
met  in  Philadelphia  the  young  lady  who  was  to  become 
his  wife  and  the  mother  of  Stephen  Foster.  Her  name 
was  Eliza  Clayland  Tomlinson,  and  she  was  a  native  of 
Wilmington,  Delaware.  The  Tomlinsons,  like  the  Fos- 
ters, were  Scotch-Irish,  while  her  maternal  ancestors, 
the  Claylands,  were  English  and  among  the  first  settlers 
of  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland. 

Both  the  Claylands  and  the  Tomlinsons  fought  in  the 
Revolution,  Colonel  James  Clayland  particularly  dis- 
tinguishing himself.  The  family  was  of  the  "aristoc- 
racy" of  the  day,  and  it  is  from  his  mother  that  Stephen 
derived  his  poetic  temperament. 

The  young  people  met  while  Eliza  Tomlinson  was  visit- 
ing her  aunt  in  Philadelphia,  Mrs.  Oliver  Evans,  wife  of 
the  inventor  of  the  famous  "amphibious  locomotive." 
The  Evans  family  lived  on  Race  Street,  and  Stephen's 
mother  was  fond  of  telling  her  children  in  after  years 
how  she  watched  the  inventor  walk  with  great  pride 
beside  his  machine  as  it  moved  out  of  his  yard  into  the 
street  and  down  into  the  river. 

Of  the  progress  of  the  love-affair  there  is  no  record, 
but  we  know  that  the  marriage  was  solemnized  at 
Chambersburg,  November  14th,  1807,  by  the  Rev. 
David  Denny,  a  Presbyterian  minister.  William  Foster 
was  at  that  time  twenty-eight  years  old  and  his  bride 
nineteen.  Chambersburg  was  on  the  overland  route  to 
Pittsburgh,  and  the  newly-married  couple  set  out  on 
horseback  over  the  mountains  for  their  new  home.  It 
was  a  journey  of  nearly  three  hundred  miles  and  occupied 
two  weeks.  Of  the  happy  ending  of  this  strange  honey- 
moon, the  young  bride  many  long  years  afterward  wrote : 

The  journey  was  slow  and  monotonous,  and  it  was  not  until  the 
fourteenth  day  that  I  hailed  with  delight  the  dingey  town  of 


8 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Pittsburgh,  my  future  home,  where  every  joy  and  sorrow  of  my 
heart  since  that  bright  period  have  been  associated  with  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  its  people.  It  was  evening,  when,  weary  and  faint  with 
travel,  I  was  conducted,  or  rather  borne  into  the  hospitable  mansion 
of  my  husband's  partner,  the  benevolent  Major  Denny,  a  dwelling 
in  the  center  of  the  town,  where  I  was  received  and  treated  with 
the  most  extreme  kindness.  After  resting  and  changing  my  apparel 
I  was  shown  into  an  apartment  below  stairs  where  blazed  in  all  its 
brilliancy  a  coal  fire,  casting  its  light  upon  the  face  of  beauty  clothed 
in  innocence  in  the  person  of  little  Nancy  Denny,  at  that  time  five 
years  old.  The  well-cleaned  grating  of  the  chimney-place,  the  light 
that  blazed  brightly  from  the  fire,  the  vermillion  hearth,  the  plain 
rich  furniture,  the  polished  stand  with  lighted  candles  in  candle- 
sticks resembling  burnished  gold,  made  an  evening  scene  that  fell 
gratefully  on  my  pleased  sight.  Upon  a  sofa  lay  the  tall  and  military 
figure  of  the  Major,  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  easy  and  dignified 
in  his  bearing,  a  soldier  who  had  served  his  country  well  under 
Washington  at  Yorktown,  and  Harmar,  St.  Clair  and  Wayne  in  the 
subsequent  Indian  campaigns. 

Pittsburgh  at  this  time  was  a  city  not  without  some 
pretensions  as  the  young  metropolis  of  the  far  West. 
Hither,  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  had 
come  many  officers  of  the  Continental  Army  with  their 
families,  bringing  with  them  the  courtesies  and  social 
amenities  of  the  seaboard  colonies,  but  lately  become 
states.  An  early  chronicler  of  the  city's  history  remarks 
with  pride  that  a  number  of  the  families  had  their  own 
carriages  and  drove  through  town  attended  by  liveried 
servants.  When  Louis  Philippe  and  his  brothers, 
Beaujolais  and  Montpensier,  visited  Pittsburgh,  they 
expressed  their  surprise  and  pleasure  at  the  "ease  and 
elegance"  of  their  entertainment  in  the  border  town. 

In  this  ambitious  western  frontier  town,  William 
Foster  and  his  wife  made  their  home  until  their  death, 
and  here  their  children  were  born.  According  to  the 
record  of  the  old  family  Bible,  still  preserved,  ten  chil- 
dren were  born  to  them,  of  whom  two  died  in  infancy. 
Stephen  was  the  ninth  child,  and  as  his  little  brother 
James,  born  three  years  later,  died  at  the  age  of  one  year, 
Stephen  was  always  "the  baby  of  the  family."  And  a 
most  interesting  and  delightful  family  it  was,  too,  as  is 
shown  by  such  of  the  family  letters  as  have  been  pre- 
served. The  last  surviving  member  of  that  generation, 


THE  FAMILY 


Morrison  Foster,  left  a  collection  of  letters  which  had 
passed  between  parents  and  children  and  brothers  and 
sisters.  These  letters  give  an  insight  not  only  into  the 
existence  of  those  days,  but  also  reveal  the  charm  of  a 
beautiful  and  affectionate  family  life.  From  these  let- 
ters, some  of  them  dating  as  far  back  as  1812,  much  of 
the  information  contained  in  the  following  pages  has 
been  obtained  and  to  them  frequent  reference  will  be 
made. 

That  William  Foster  prospered  and  laid  up  for  him- 
self treasures  of  this  world's  goods,  there  is  ample  evi- 
dence. That  he  was  a  man  of  great  public  spirit  is  re- 
vealed not  only  in  his  own  letters,  but  also  in  his  deeds. 
During  the  War  of  1812  he  was  appointed  Quartermaster 
and  Commissary  of  the  United  States  Army.  When  the 
Army  of  the  Northwest  appealed  to  the  government  for 
supplies  to  enable  them  to  continue  the  war,  the  answer 
was  "a  mournful  echo  from  the  vaults  of  an  exhausted 
treasury";  but  William  Foster,  with  his  own  money 
and  upon  his  own  personal  credit,  procured  the  neces- 
sary supplies.  When  the  British  army,  which  had  cap- 
tured Washington  and  burned  the  Capitol,  turned  their 
fleet  southward  for  the  capture  of  New  Orleans,  urgent 
orders  came  to  Pittsburgh  to  send  forward  clothing, 
blankets,  guns  and  ammunition  for  the  relief  of  Jackson's 
army.  Again  William  Foster  drew  upon  his  own  for- 
tune and  credit  to  procure  the  needed  supplies.  He 
loaded  the  steamboat  "Enterprise,"  the  fourth  steam- 
boat to  turn  a  wheel  on  the  western  river,  and  the  first 
to  make  the  trip  to  New  Orleans  and  return,  and  dis- 
patched her  from  Pittsburgh  on  the  15th  of  December, 
1814.  She  was  commanded  by  one  of  the  pioneer  river 
captains,  Henry  M.  Shreve.  Leaving  Pittsburgh  just 
at  twilight  on  a  winter  afternoon,  as  the  boat  rounded 
to  and  pointed  down  stream  for  the  long  voyage,  Capt. 
Shreve  called  out  to  Foster,  standing  on  the  wharf, 
"I'll  get  her  there  before  the  British  or  sink  this  boat." 


10 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Part  of  the  journey  was  accomplished  through  floating 
ice,  but  New  Orleans  was  reached  on  the  5th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1815,  three  days  before  the  battle  which  saved 
Louisiana.  Captain  Shreve  unloaded  part  of  his  cargo 
at  the  city  and  ran  down  the  river  to  Fort  Philip,  passing 
the  British  batteries,  returned  again  to  the  city  and  took 
part  in  the  battle  of  the  8th  of  January,  serving  in  one 
of  the  American  batteries.  Captain  Shreve  and  the 
steamer  "Enterprise"  later  made  the  trip  from  New 
Orleans  to  Louisville  in  twenty-five  days,  which  was  con- 
sidered so  remarkable  a  feat  that  the  worthy  Captain 
was  publicly  feted  by  the  latter  city. 

During  this  troublesome  time,  the  government  was 
often  indebted  to  William  Foster  for  as  much  as  $50,000. 
Upon  the  final  adjudication  of  his  accounts,  it  became 
necessary  to  refer  the  facts  as  to  certain  amounts  to  a 
jury.  Upon  the  hearing  of  the  case  in  the  United  States 
Court  at  Pittsburgh  in  1823,  the  venerable  Judge  Walker, 
in  his  charge  to  the  jury,  paid  this  tribute  to  the  patriot: 
1  'Terminate  as  this  cause  may,  Mr.  Foster  has  estab- 
lished for  himself  a  character  for  zeal,  patriotism,  gen- 
erosity and  fidelity  which  cannot  be  forgotten,  and  has 
placed  a  laurel  on  his  brow  that  will  never  fade." 

A  verdict  in  his  favor  was  returned  by  the  jury  with- 
out leaving  the  court-room,  but  the  judgment  was  never 
settled  and  still  stands  unpaid  on  the  records  of  the 
United  States  Court  at  Pittsburgh. 

His  fortune  at  this  time  must  have  been  considerable, 
for  in  spite  of  these  difficulties  and  responsibilities,  on 
April  5th,  1814,  he  paid  $35,000  for  a  tract  of  171  acres 
on  a  hillside  overlooking  the  Alleghany  River  about  two 
miles  above  the  city  of  Pittsburgh.  The  history  of  this 
land  is  to  be  found  in  the  County  records  at  Pittsburgh. 
It  was  originally  patented  by  the  State  to  one  Conrad 
Winebiddle,  December  27th,  1787,  under  the  tract  title 
"Good  Liquor."  It  was  part  of  George  Croghan's  vast 
holdings  and  not  far  from  the  site  of  Croghan's  Castle, 


THE  FAMILY  11 


burned  by  the  Indians  during  the  siege  of  Fort  Pitt,  in 
1763. 

The  tract  purchased  by  William  Foster  was  known  as 
"Bullitt's  Hill,"  and  extended  on  the  north  as  far  as  the 
Alleghany  River,  including  the  ground  where  Colonel 
George  Washington  and  his  guide,  Christopher  Gist, 
landed  on  December  28th,  1753,  after  being  marooned  all 
night  on  Wainright's  Island  and  nearly  frozen  to  death 
while  returning  from  the  French  Fort  Venango.  It  was 
doubtless  farmland  when  Foster  bought  it  and,  as  the 
consideration  indicates,  was  accounted  valuable,  with  a 
water-front  and  two  main  travelled  roads  intersecting 
it  and  leading  into  the  town  of  Pittsburgh. 

Immediately  after  purchasing  the  land,  William  Foster 
donated  a  part  of  it  to  be,  as  he  expressed  it,  "a  burial 
ground  for  our  soldiers  forever,"  where  they  might  be 
buried  by  right  and  not  by  sufferance.  At  the  time  this 
donation  was  made,  soldiers  were  passing  through  Pitts- 
burgh continually,  going  to  or  returning  from  the  war. 
Many  of  them  died  there  and  were  buried  in  the  Potter's 
Field.  As  the  son  of  an  American  soldier,  Foster  deter- 
mined that  this  shameful  practice  should  no  longer  con- 
tinue. The  burial-ground  he  thus  donated  is  marked 
at  the  present  time  by  a  monument  of  solid  granite, 
bearing  the  inscription,  "In  honor  of  the  American  sol- 
diers who  lie  buried  here,"  with  the  date  1814.  In  the 
same  year  he  also  sold  thirty  acres  of  the  land  to  the 
Government,  and  upon  it  was  erected  the  Arsenal  which 
was  in  use  until  1905.  Upon  a  spot  well  up  on  the  hill, 
overlooking  the  river,  he  erected  "The  White  Cottage," 
which  became  the  Foster  homestead,  and  here  the 
younger  Foster  children,  including  Stephen,  were  born. 
The  remainder  of  his  land  Foster  laid  out  as  a  town  and 
named  it  Lawrenceville,  after  that  Captain  Lawrence 
whose  death  in  a  naval  battle,  occurring  shortly  before 
this  time,  was  immortalized  by  his  dying  words,  "Don't 
give  up  the  ship!" 


12 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

When  the  family  moved  to  Lawrenceville,  there  were 
three  children,  Charlotte,  aged  five,  Ann  Eliza,  aged 
three,  and  William  Barclay  junior,  two  or  three  months 
old.  Upon  him,  as  the  eldest  son,  fell  much  burden  and 
responsibility  in  after  years.  His  mother  idolized  him, 
calling  herself  "the  proud  mother  of  the  best  of  sons"; 
he  was  his  father's  intimate  as  well  as  business  partner 
and  advisor,  and  to  him  little  Stephen  looked  up  as  to 
a  father. 

The  family  Bible,  with  laconic  brevity,  chronicles  the 
arrival  at  the  White  Cottage  of  other  little  Fosters — 
Henry  in  1816,  Henrietta  in  1818,  Dunning  in  1821  and 
Morrison  in  1823.  With  all  of  these  young  people  we 
become  better  acquainted  later. 


II 
BOYHOOD 

Oddly  enough,  the  first  reference  to  Stephen  in  these 
family  letters  pictures  him  at  the  age  of  six  absorbed 
in  musical  activities.  It  occurs  in  a  letter  written  by  his 
mother  to  his  eldest  brother,  William. 

Harmony,  May  the  14,  1832. 
My  dear  Son,- — 

I  have  already  written  one  letter  to  Ann  Eliza,  the  only  time  that 
I  have  had  a  pen  in  hand,  that  I  can  recollect,  for  two  years  or  more. 
Besides  the  very  many  perplexities  of  house-keeping,  there  was  the 
weak  and  tremulous  state  I  was  left  in  after  the  death  of  your  ever 
to  be  lamented  sister  Charlotte  and  equally  interesting  little  brother 
James.  My  body  has  only  recovered  strength  since  my  mind  was 
restored  to  that  tranquility  which  comes  only  from  a  perfect  recon- 
ciliation to  the  will  of  that  Omniscient  Power  which  regulates  and 
rules.  Although  the  vessels  are  broken  which  I  hewed  out  to  hold 
the  sources  of  my  earthly  joys,  the  delightful  cottage  and  the  sound 
of  the  deep-toned  instrument  still  comes  dancing  on  in  the  arrear  of 
memory,  with  pain  and  sorrow  at  thought  of  how  it  closed  forever 
with  the  departure  from  this  transitory  stage  of  her  we  loved  so 
dearly.  But  now  I  have  little  to  ask,  all  is  well  that  God  in  His 
mercy  sends  me.  I  lead  a  quiet  life,  you  are  getting  along,  Ann  Eliza 
is  in  Meadville,  and  content,  Henry  likes  the  manual  training  insti- 
tution. Your  Father  is  in  Pittsburgh  and  the  little  children  go  to 
school  with  quite  as  happy  faces  as  though  the  world  had  no  thorns 
in  it,  and  I  confess  there  would  be  but  few  if  we  would  all  follow 
the  Scriptures,  in  which  we  would  be  made  strong.  Write  to  me 
soon  and  I  will  try  to  answer  it. 

Your  affectionate  mother, 

ELIZA  C.  FOSTER. 

I  thought  the  mail  would  not  close  until  I  could  finish  my  letter, 
but  being  late  I  concluded  rather  hastily  without  saying  anything 
about  Stephen,  who  has  a  drum  and  marches  about  after  the  old 
way,  with  a  feather  in  his  hat  and  a  girdle  round  his  waist,  whistling 
"Auld  Lang  Syne."  He  often  asks  why  you  don't  come  home. 
There  still  remains  something  perfectly  original  about  him.  Dunn- 
ing has  written  several  letters  to  you  and  he  does  not  know  but  that 
they  are  worthy  of  being  answered ;  however,  he  drives  on.  He  means 
to  write  another  soon.  We  should  like  to  hear  from  you,  as  Pa  may 
receive  letters  in  Pittsburgh  without  our  knowing  how  you  do  out 
here.  That  we  may  be  all  together  again  when  it  pleaseth  God, 
the  unseen  influence  that  directs  our  ways,  is  the  sincere  prayer  of 
one  who  proudly  claims  the  name  of  Mother  to  the  best  of  sons. 

William  B.  Foster,  Junior,  to  whom  this  letter  was 
written,  had  left  home  in  1826,  the  year  of  Stephen's 

13 


14 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

birth,  when  he  himself  was  only  seventeen  years  old. 
In  the  spring  of  that  year  a  party  of  engineers,  engaged 
in  locating  the  route  of  a  proposed  canal  from  Pittsburgh 
to  Kiskiminetas,  passed  through  Lawrenceville,  and 
stopped  for  dinner  at  the  Foster  home.  As  they  were 
in  need  of  more  men  for  the  work  they  had  undertaken, 
the  head  of  the  family  suggested  that  they  take  with 
them  his  oldest  son. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  highly  successful 
career.  William  B.  Foster,  Junior,  soon  became  a  full- 
fledged  "civil  engineer,"  and  from  that  time  on  was 
prominent  in  all  that  region  for  his  work  in  various  lines. 
He  spent  several  years  in  Kentucky,  working  on  improve- 
ments in  the  Green  River  country,  and  on  his  return  to 
Pennsylvania  became  Chief  Engineer  of  Public  Works  of 
the  State,  including  canals  and  railroads.  Although  his 
work  kept  him  away  from  home,  his  loving  care  for  his 
father  and  mother  and  the  younger  members  of  the 
family  seems  never  to  have  lessened. 

In  the  summer  of  1847  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
two  Chief  Engineers  of  the  proposed  "Pennsylvania 
Railroad,"  to  connect  the  Western  country  with  Phila- 
delphia, and  in  this  capacity  he  laid  out  and  built  a  large 
part  of  the  road  west  of  Harrisburg,  including  the  difficult 
crossing  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1860  he  was  First  Vice-President  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad. 

The  death  of  Charlotte,  the  oldest  daughter  of  the 
family,  mentioned  in  this  letter,  had  occurred  two  and 
a  half  years  earlier,  in  October,  1829,  while  she  was  visit- 
ing relatives  in  Louisville.  The  shock  of  this  tragic  event 
seems  to  have  had  a  profound  effect  upon  all  the  older 
members  of  the  family. 

Charlotte,  as  revealed  by  her  letters,  was  a  girl  of 
much  animation  and  charm.  She  was  nineteen  years 
old,  engaged  to  be  married,  and  seems  to  have  possessed 
a  bright,  merry  spirit  and  much  social  grace.  Her  letters 


BOYHOOD  15 


describing  her  trip  to  Louisville  and  her  visit  there  are 
full  of  gayety  and  sparkle:  "I  fear,  my  dear  Father,  you 
will  think  this  a  very  frivolous  letter,"  concludes  one 
of  them  after  several  pages  devoted  to  parties  and  social 
gossip. 

The  death  of  Charlotte  left  Ann  Eliza  the  oldest  child. 
She  was  twenty  when  the  letter,  quoted  above,  was 
written.  Later  she  married  the  Rev.  Edward  Y. 
Buchanan,  a  brother  of  President  Buchanan,  and  lived 
to  be  nearly  eighty  years  of  age. 

The  younger  children,  who  were  at  this  time  going  to 
school  "with  such  happy  faces,"  were  Dunning,  aged 
eleven,  Morrison,  nine,  and  Stephen,  five.  Stephen's 
first  experience  with  school  had  occurred  shortly  before 
this  at  an  "infant  school"  conducted  by  a  Mrs.  Harvey, 
an  elderly  lady,  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Morgan.  The 
incident  is  described  by  his  brother  Morrison,  who  tells 
how  Stephen  was  called  up  for  his  first  lesson  in  the  let- 
ters of  the  alphabet,  and  had  not  proceeded  far  in  this 
mystery  when  his  patience  gave  out,  and  "with  a  yell 
like  that  of  a  Comanche  Indian,  he  bounded  bareheaded 
into  the  road  and  never  stopped  running  and  yelling 
until  he  reached  home,  a  mile  away." 

In  the  following  year,  a  letter  to  William  from  his 
mother,  dated  "Pittsburgh,  July  9,  1833,"  describes  a 
long  trip  by  river  steamer  which  she  took  with  Henrietta 
(aged  fourteen)  and  Stephen.  Later  in  the  same  year 
Henrietta  in  a  letter  to  William  speaks  of  Stephen : 

We  are  all  well,  except  Ma,  .  .  .  and  little  Stephy  had  his 
eye  bitten  by  a  spider  and  it  was  very  much  swollen  indeed,  but  he 
is  getting  well  too. 

About  this  time,  the  three  younger  boys  were  attend- 
ing a  school  founded  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  Stockton,  an 
old  friend  of  the  Foster  family,  who  had  come  from 
Meadville  to  "Alleghany  Town,"  across  the  river  from 
Pittsburgh.  He  was  the  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Alleghany  as  well  as  Principal  of  the  Alleghany 


16 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Academy.  This  academy  was  considered  a  model  insti- 
tution for  the  education  of  youth,  and  was  attended  by 
the  sons  of  nearly  all  the  most  prominent  citizens  of 
Pittsburgh  and  Alleghany. 

Mr.  Stockton  was  regarded  as  a  very  learned  man.  In 
addition  to  his  high  repute  as  a  classical  scholar,  he  had 
also  achieved  fame  as  the  author  of  a  book  on  arithmetic 
which  was  for  a  long  time  the  standard  in  schools  west 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountains.  His  chief  assistant  in  the 
Alleghany  Academy  was  one  John  Kelly,  an  Irishman 
who  had  been  tutor  in  the  family  of  Sir  Rowland  Hill, 
and  who  had  brought  with  him  to  Pittsburgh  letters  of 
introduction  from  many  of  "the  most  excellent  people 
in  the  refined  city  of  Dublin."  Mr.  Kelly  was  held  to 
be  a  rigid  disciplinarian,  but  notwithstanding  "of  genial 
disposition."  Out  of  school  he  played  ball  and  prisoner's 
base  with  the  boys  and  "excelled  in  every  manly  athletic 
exercise,"  but  in  school  he  required  strict  attention  to 
business.  The  faculty  boasted  two  other  members,  who 
were  entrusted  with  the  instruction  of  elocution  and  pen- 
manship. 

Lindley  Murray  was  the  standard  authority  on  gram- 
mar, and  "The  English  Reader,"  by  the  same  author, 
was  used  for  instruction  in  reading.  Hutton's  Mathe- 
matics and  "The  Western  Calculator"  were  relied  on  for 
arithmetic,  together  with  Mr.  Stockton's  book. 

Stephen's  copy  of  "Walker's  Dictionary"  is  one  of  the 
very  few  of  his  possessions  which  have  been  preserved. 
It  is  now  in  a  very  dilapidated  condition ;  the  front  cover, 
the  title-pages  and  the  last  pages  from  the  letter  "Z," 
are  missing. 

These  books  constituted  the  chief  sources  of  primary 
education  for  the  youth  of  Western  Pennsylvania  in  the 
1830's,  while  "the  higher  walks  of  learning"  were  followed 
at  Jefferson  College  at  Canonsburg  (which  had  grown  out 
of  Dr.  McMillan's  Academy),  Washington  College  at 
Washington,  and  the  Western  University  at  Pittsburgh. 


BOYHOOD  17 


Stephen  seems  to  have  conquered  his  first  aversion  to 
disciplined  instruction,  but  he  was  not  the  type  of  child 
to  make  a  teacher's  heart  throb  with  joy.  The  fact  that 
there  still  remained  about  him  "something  perfectly 
original,"  was  enough  to  make  his  school-days  a  time  of 
trial  and  tribulation.  These  school  troubles,  however, 
developed  later.  In  the  beginning  he  seems  to  have  been 
more  docile,  for  his  father  wrote  to  brother  William  from 
Pittsburgh,  July  14th,  1834,  "Little  Stephen  is  learning 
very  fast.  Mr.  Kelly  says  that  he  and  Morrison  are  the 
most  sensible  children  he  ever  saw  in  his  life." 

Later  in  the  same  letter  occurs  this  interesting  remark: 

Mrs.  Collins  made  your  Ma  a  present  of  an  excellent  colored 
girl  a  few  days  ago,  who  has  upwards  of  three  years  of  service,  so 
much  saved  for  girl's  hire. 

This  Mrs.  Collins  was  probably  Mrs.  Thomas  Collins, 
wife  of  a  prominent  Pittsburgh  lawyer.  She  and  Mrs. 
Foster  were  close  friends,  and  Stephen  was  named  for 
her  only  son,  who  had  died  at  the  age  of  twelve  years, 
just  before  Stephen's  birth.  The  girl  was  Olivia  Pise, 
a  mulatto,  the  illegitimate  daughter  of  a  West  Indian 
Frenchman  who  taught  dancing  to  the  upper  circles  of 
Pittsburgh  society  early  in  the  last  century.  "Lieve," 
as  she  was  called,  was  very  devout  and  a  member  of 
a  church  of  shouting  colored  people.  She  was  sometimes 
permitted  to  take  "little  Stephy"  to  church  with  her, 
and  the  singing  of  the  colored  people  must  have  made  a 
deep  impression  on  the  mind  of  the  sensitive  child.  To 
these  experiences  he  doubtless  owes  much  of  the  spon- 
taneity and  fidelity  to  type  of  his  negro  melodies,  many 
of  which  are  so  thoroughly  and  essentially  characteristic 
as  to  give  rise  to  the  erroneous  idea  that  they  are  not 
original,  but  actual  folk-melodies  of  the  colored  people. 

In  1836,  Mrs.  Foster  went  "over  the  mountains"  for  a 
long  visit  with  her  relatives.  There  are  several  letters 
from  her  to  William,  full  of  loving  confidence  in  his  tact 
and  judgment.  From  Philadelphia  she  wrote  in  May: 


Tell  Morrison  and  Stephen  I  knowphey  are  good  boys  and  look 
up  to  their  kind  elder  brother  for  countenance  and  protection,  with 
submission. 

In  this  same  year,  1836,  the  family  left  the  White 
Cottage  and  moved  to  Alleghany  City,  across  the  river, 
where  Stephen  spent  a  large  part  of  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  This  move  was  due  to  the  fact  that  William  B. 
Foster,  Senior,  had  been  appointed  the  first  Collector  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Canal,  which  had  just  been  completed, 
an  appointment  which  came  to  him  as  a  reward  for  his 
ardent  support,  both  in  and  out  of  the  Legislature,  of 
the  plan  to  build  the  canal. 

All  told,  he  served  three  terms  in  the  State  Legislature. 
To  attend  a  session  meant  a  journey  of  six  days  on  horse- 
back over  the  mountains  to  Harrisburg.  Many  of  his 
letters  from  Harrisburg  are  in  the  Morrison  Foster  col- 
lection, and  while  they  possess  much  that  is  of  interest 
and  historical  value,  they  have  no  direct  bearing  upon 
Stephen's  life,  so  they  are  not  here  reproduced. 

The  White  Cottage  and  much  of  the  land  on  Bullitt's 
Hill  was  sold  and  the  family  became  identified  with  the 
life  of  the  city  across  the  river.  William  B.  Foster  was 
twice  elected  Mayor  of  Alleghany.  His  family  lived  for 
many  years  in  a  house  on  the  corner  of  Union  Avenue 
and  Gay  Alley,  facing  the  Common,  a  grass-grown,  un- 
cultivated open  stretch  of  country  upon  which  cows 
grazed. 

The  first  letter  in  Stephen's  own  handwriting  was  writ- 
ten to  his  father  from  Youngstown,  Ohio,  whither  he  had 
gone  "a- visiting"  in  the  winter  of  1837,  when  he  was  ten 
years  old.  This,  the  first  autograph  of  a  famous  man,  is 
just  a  message  from  a  homesick  little  boy,  who  had  great 
difficulty  in  forming  his  letters,  which  in  spite  of  the  best 
he  could  do,  would  run  up-hill  and  down — a  fact  which 
evidently  annoyed  him  considerably. 

Youngstown,  January  14th,  1837. 
My  dear  Father: 

I  wish  you  to  send  me  a  commie  songster  for  you  promised  to. 
If  I  had  my  pensyl  I  could  rule  my  paper  or  if  I  had  the  money  to 


19 


buy  black  ink  but  if  I  had  ^|y  whistle  I  would  be  so  taken  with  it 
I  do  not  think  I  would  write  a  tall,  there  has  been  a  sleighing  party 
this  morning  with  twenty  or  thirty  cupples  Dr.  Bane  got  home 
last  night  and  told  us  Henry  was  coming  out  here.  I  wish  Dunning 
would  come  with  him.  Tell  them  both  to  try  to  come  for  I  should 
like  to  see  them  both  most  two  much  to  talk  about. 
I  remane  your  loving  son, 

STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER 

A  letter  from  "Mother,"  written  in  June  of  the  same 
year,  records  that  "Stephen  has  recovered  from  the 
whooping  cough  and  is  going  to  school  with  Morrison 
to  Mr.  Todd." 

This  Mr.  Todd,  like  Mr.  Stockton  and  most  of  the 
educators  of  that  time  and  region,  was  a  Presbyterian 
minister.  His  instruction  laid  special  emphasis  upon 
Latin  and  Greek,  and  he  ite  reported  to  have  referred  to 
Stephen  as  "the  most  perfect  gentleman  he  ever  had  for 
a  pupil." 

"Little  Stephy's"  musical  talents  had  been  in  evidence 
before  this  time.  There  is  a  family  tradition  that,  at 
the  age  of  two,  he  would  lay  his  sister's  guitar,  which 
he  called  his  "ittle  pizano"  (little  piano)  on  the  floor 
and  pick  out  harmonies  on  it.  There  may  be  some  truth 
in  this  pretty  legend  as  far  as  the  guitar  is  concerned, 
but  it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  "Little  Stephy"  at  the 
age  of  two,  had  ever  seen  or  heard  a  piano.  It  was  not 
until  twenty  years  later  that  the  first  "upright"  piano 
was  brought  across  the  mountains  to  Pittsburgh,  and 
"grand"  pianos  were  certainly  not  familiar  objects  there 
in  1828.  At  any  rate,  we  know  that  the  Foster  family 
did  not  possess  one  at  that  time.  Possibly  the  guitar  was 
"the  deep-toned  instrument"  mentioned  in  the  letter  at 
the  beginning  of  this  chapter  in  connection  with  the  death 
of  Charlotte. 

There  is  also  a  story  of  Stephen's  accompanying  his 
mother  on  a  shopping  trip  at  the  age  of  seven,  and  while 
in  the  music  store  of  Smith  &  Mellor,  in  Pittsburgh, 
picking  up  a  flageolet  off  the  counter,  and  in  a  few 
minutes,  unaided  and  indeed  unobserved,  so  mastering 


20 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

the  technic  of  the  instrument  as  to  be  able  to  render  in- 
telligibly to  the  amazed  ears  of  the  clerks  and  other 
shoppers  the  strains  of  "Hail  Columbia." 

According  to  another  of  these  family  traditions,  he 
appeared  at  the  age  of  nine  as  the  star  performer  of  an 
amateur  "Thespian  Society"  composed  of  neighborhood 
boys.  The  theatre  was  fitted  up  in  a  carriage  house,  and 
all  the  boys  were  stock-holders  except  Stephen,  who  was 
much  the  youngest  member  of  the  society  and  was  at 
first  admitted  merely  on  sufferance.  He  was  too  small 
to  attain  much  prominence  as  a  "Thespian,"  but  at  the 
performances  of  the  club  he  sang  the  popular  songs  of 
the  day  with  so  much  grace  and  charm  that  he  soon  came 
to  be  regarded  as  the  bright  particular  star  of  the  entire 
constellation.  So  great  was  his  popularity  that  the  other 
members  guaranteed  him  a  certain  sum  per  week  in  order 
to  retain  his  services  and  good  will.  It  was  a  very  small 
sum,  but  sufficient  to  mark  his  superiority  over  the  rest 
of  the  company. 

The  negro  song  had  just  come  into  vogue  and  the  popu- 
lar ditties  were  "Zip  Coon,"  "Longtail  Blue,"  "Coal 
Black  Rose"  and  "Jim  Crow."  Stephen's  performance 
of  these  songs  was  greeted  with  uproarious  applause, 
whenever  the  company  gave  an  entertainment  before 
their  admiring  friends  and  families,  which  was,  during 
its  brief  existence,  three  times  a  week.  When  sufficiently 
large  the  proceeds  from  these  performances  were  used 
to  buy  the  amateur  Thespians  tickets  to  the  old  Pitts- 
burgh Theatre  on  Saturday  nights,  where  they  enjoyed 
the  acting  of  Junius  Brutus  Booth,  Edwin  Forrest,  and 
other  celebrities  of  the  time. 

Between  the  ages  of  ten  and  thirteen,  Stephen  fre- 
quently visited  an  old  uncle,  John  Struthers,  who  lived 
in  Youngstown,  Ohio,  which  was  still  considered  "fron- 
tier." Uncle  Struthers  had  been  a  surveyor,  hunter  and 
Indian  fighter  in  the  early  settlement  of  the  country;  and 
now,  in  his  eighties,  he  was  very  fond  of  Stephen  and 


BOYHOOD  21 


welcomed  him  to  his  log  house  in  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory. He  had  dogs  and  rifles  and  would  lead  the  hunt 
at  night  for  'coons,  'possums,  and  other  nocturnal  game. 
This  may  have  been  tame  work  to  the  old  pioneer,  who 
had  been  used  to  bears,  panthers  and  hostile  Indians, 
but  these  hunts  and  the  stories  of  adventure  told  him 
by  his  aged  relative  must  have  been  a  source  of  great 
delight  to  the  imaginative  child.  Old  Uncle  Struthers, 
who  seems  to  have  been  a  bit  of  a  character  himself,  re- 
sponded to  the  "something  perfectly  original"  in 
Stephen,  and  prophesied  that  if  he  lived  to  be  a  man  he 
would  turn  out  "something  famous,"  although  he  did 
not  specify  just  what  outlet  Stephen's  originality  would 
seek. 

One  of  these  visits  took  place  in  the  summer  of  1839, 
when  Stephen  was  thirteen,  for  Henrietta  writes  to 
William, 

Youngstown,  Sept.  29,  1839 

.  .  .  .  Stephen  enjoys  himself  finely  at  Uncle  Struther's. 
He  never  appears  to  have  the  least  inclination  to  leave  there  and 
don't  seem  to  feel  at  all  lonely.  Uncle  just  lets  him  do  as  he  pleases 
with  the  horses  and  cattle,  which  makes  him  the  greatest  man  on 
the  grounds. 

Earlier  in  the  same  year,  William  had  visited  the 
family,  and  had  proposed  that  he  take  Stephen  back 
with  him  on  his  return  to  Towanda,  in  Bradford  County, 
where  his  headquarters  were  established  at  that  time.  He 
agreed  to  put  the  boy  in  school  at  Athens,  a  near-by 
town,  where  there  was  a  good  academy  and  where  he 
could  be  under  the  watchful  care  of  his  loving  big 
brother.  His  parents'  consent  having  been  gained,  the 
plan  was  adopted,  and  another  chapter  of  Stephen's 
educational  adventures  was  begun.  It  was  winter,  and 
William  took  him  all  the  way  to  Towanda  in  his  own 
sleigh,  drawn  by  two  horses.  The  distance  was  over 
three  hundred  miles,  but  the  sleighing  was  good  and 
William  Foster  was  a  man  of  great  personal  popularity 
who  had  many  friends  and  acquaintances  along  the  road. 


22 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

To  Stephen  the  journey  was  a  joyous  adventure,  and  re- 
mained with  him  all  his  life  as  a  beautiful  memory  to 
which  he  often  referred  with  delight. 

The  Athens  Academy  was  one  of  the  best  schools  of 
its  kind  in  that  region.  Its  history,  like  that  of  many 
other  of  these  pioneer  schools,  shows  the  high  regard  in 
which  "learning"  was  held  by  the  founders  and  builders 
of  the  frontier  communities.  The  first  move  to  found 
an  Academy  at  "Tioga  Point"  (as  it  was  then  known) 
was  made  in  February,  1 797 .  About  $900  was  subscribed 
in  shares  of  $30  each  by  the  citizens  of  the  neighborhood. 
The  country  was  new  and  sparsely  settled,  money  was 
scarce,  and  many  of  the  shares  were  paid  in  labor  and 
materials.  The  frame  of  the  building  was  erected,  but 
stood  for  several  years  without  being  enclosed.  Later, 
a  small  appropriation  was  obtained  from  the  Legislature 
and  the  second  story  of  the  building  was  rented  to  the 
Masonic  Lodge  and  occupied  by  them  for  several  years. 
In  these  and  various  other  ways  the  school  fund  was 
raised,  and  finally  on  Monday,  April  25th,  1814,  just 
seventeen  years  after  the  first  subscription  had  been 
made,  the  school  was  opened.  During  the  next  thirty 
years,  the  Academy  had  no  less  than  twenty  Principals, 
probably  more,  for  the  records  were  negligently  kept. 
Some  of  these  "Principals"  held  the  position  only  three 
or  four  weeks,  or  a  few  months,  only  two  of  them  endur- 
ing through  a  period  of  three  years  each. 

The  building  was  painted  white,  and  an  architectural 
feature  held  worthy  of  note  by  local  historians  was  the 
fact  that  it  had  "four  handsomely  turned  (round)  pillars 
to  support  the  front  and  a  bell- tower  over  the  porch." 
In  1841  the  school  received  from  the  State  an  income  of 
$500  a  year,  the  first  payment  of  which  was  spent  for 
"astronomical  and  philosophical  apparatus  and  books  for 
the  library." 

At  the  time  Stephen  Foster  was  a  pupil,  the  Athens 
Academy  was  enjoying  "the  most  brilliant  period  in  its 


BOYHOOD  23 


entire  history,"  under  the  administration  of  John  G. 
Marvin.  "His  education  was  somewhat  defective,"  runs 
a  chronicle,  "so  much  so  that  he  needed  to  study  ahead 
of  his  more  advanced  classes,"  but  he  was  "an  unusually 
fine  disciplinarian."  In  the  Spring  of  1841,  the  Academy 
published  a  catalogue  of  trustees,  teachers  and  students, 
for  the  year  ending  July,  1841,  recording  the  presence  of 
two  hundred  students,  "males  130,  females  70."  In 
this  catalogue  occurs  the  name  of  "Stephen  Collins  Foster 
of  Pittsburgh." 

Of  Stephen's  schoolmates  at  the  Athens  Academy, 
probably  none  survive  to  this  day.  There  are  to  be 
found,  however,  a  few  reminiscences  of  him  that  help 
us  to  a  clear  picture  of  his  boyhood.  One  of  the  memories 
which  endured  through  the  years  was  that  of  the  tones 
of  Stephen's  flute,  floating  over  the  water  to  the  boating 
parties  on  the  river. 

The  following  description  of  Stephen  at  this  age  was 
written  for  the  Bradford  County  Historical  Society 
nearly  seventy  years  later  by  R.  M.  Welles: 

It  was  in  January,  1841,  that  I  met  Stephen  C.  Foster  at  school 
in  Athens.  It  may  be  of  interest  to  the  reader  to  have  a  description 
of  this  remarkable  musical  and  poetical  writer  as  I  recollect  him. 
He  was  at  the  time  in  his  fifteenth  year;  his  complexion  was  rather 
dark,  he  had  a  tall  large  head,  which  was  covered  with  fine,  nearly 
black  hair,  that  lay  flat  upon  the  scalp,  and  if  I  recollect  correctly 
his  jaws  were  somewhat  square,  indicating  firmness.  This  quality 
was  shown  in  his  intense  application  to  study  and  composition.  He 
was  studious  and  according  to  my  recollection,  kept  much  to  his 
room  and  did  not  join  the  boys  in  their  sports.  I  do  not  remember 
that  he  spent  any  time  in  society.  He  was  rather  delicate  in  health, 
mainly  I  think  because  of  lack  of  physical  exercise,  and  later  in 
life  was  somewhat  nervous,  not  being  able  to  sleep  at  night  except 
in  perfect  quiet.  Stephen  was  studious  and  did  not  join  with  the 
other  boys  in  their  sports.  He  was  a  good  penman  and  made  fine 
ornamental  letters. 

Another  recollection  of  Stephen  was  written  in  1897, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  the  school,  by  John  A.  Perkins  of  Fresno, 
California: 

Stephen  C.  Foster,  of  minstrel  fame,  was  at  the  Academy  about 
this  time,  and  showed  some  of  the  genius  he  displayed  in  later  years. 


24 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

I  can  see  him  speaking  "Lord  Ullin's  Daughter"  as  though  it  was 
yesterday;  at  the  close  he  would  fold  his  arms,  throw  back  his  head 
and  tragically  exclaim,  "My  daughter,  oh  my  daughter!" 

One  of  Stephen's  friends  at  Athens  was  William 
Wallace  Kingsbury,  who  afterwards  became  the  first 
United  States  Senator  from  Minnesota.  Among  his 
reminiscences  is  this  reference  to  Stephen: 

Well  do  I  remember  the  inimitable  Stephen  C.  Foster.  He  was 
my  special  friend  and  companion.  Being  a  year  older  than  myself 
and  considerably  larger,  he  used  to  defend  me  in  my  boyhood  antag- 
onisms with  belligerent  schoolmates.  We  often  played  truant  to- 
gether, rambling  by  shady  streams  or  gathering  wild  strawberries 
in  the  meadows  or  pastures  far  removed  from  the  old  Academy  bell. 
Our  mutual  luxury,  in  which  we  jointly  indulged  in  those  excursions 
without  leave,  was  in  going  barefoot  and  wading  in  pools  of  running 
water  that  meandered  through  Mercer's  farm  and  down  Mix's  Run 
in  the  village  of  my  nativity.  Foster  wore  a  fine  quality  of  hose, 
and  I  remember  how  it  shocked  me  to  see  him  cast  them  away  when 
soiled  by  perspiration  or  muddy  water.  His  was  a  nature  generous 
to  a  fault,  with  a  soul  attuned  to  harmony.  His  love  of  music  was 
an  all-absorbing  passion  and  his  execution  on  the  flute  was  the  very 
genius  of  melody  and  gave  rise  to  those  flights  of  inspired  pathos 
which  have  charmed  the  English-speaking  world  with  their  excellence 
from  cabin  to  palace. 

There  is  a  reference  to  Stephen  in  a  letter  to  William 
from  his  father,  dated  Pittsburgh,  April  27th,  1840: 

Dear  William; 

I  wrote  to  Stephen  on  the  18th  and  scolded  him  pretty  smartly 
for  not  having  written  to  us  more  frequently,  but  he  is  not  quite 
so  much  to  blame  as  I  then  thought,  for  in  the  evening  of  that  day 
I  received  a  letter  from  him  which  was  dated  the  27th  of  March, 
and  must  have  been  twenty-one  days  on  the  way.  I  wish  you  to 
tell  him  of  this. 

Up  to  this  time  there  is  no  reference  in  any  of  the 
family  archives  to  Stephen's  taste  for  music.  The  legends 
about  his  sister's  guitar  and  the  flageolet  in  Smith  & 
Mellor's  Music  Store  were  remembered  long  afterwards, 
when  his  life  had  taken  definite  form  and  direction.  At 
some  time  in  his  childhood  he  learned  to  play  upon  the 
flute,  an  accomplishment  which  helped  him  to  win  an 
unfortunate  social  popularity  later  in  life.  His  flute  is 
one  of  the  objects  now  on  view  in  the  pathetically  small 
museum  of  Fosterana  at  the  Foster  Homestead  Me- 
morial in  Pittsburgh.  In  some  manner  also  he  learned 


BOYHOOD  25 


to  play  the  piano,  although  how  or  from  whom  the 
record  does  not  state.  He  is  supposed  to  have  had  some 
lessons  from  Henry  Kleber,  one  of  the  few  professional 
musicians  of  Pittsburgh  of  that  day,  and  Morrison  Foster 
mentions  W.  C.  Peters,  who  published  the  first  of 
Stephen  Foster's  songs,  as  "a  former  music  teacher  in 
our  family." 


Ill 

YOUTH 

Whatever  Stephen's  early  musical  training  may  have 
been,  his  talent  had  already  asserted  itself,  for  at  this 
time  publicity  was  first  given  to  an  effort  at  musical 
composition.  This  was  a  "Tioga  Waltz,"  written  for 
the  extraordinary  combination  of  four  (or  possibly  three) 
flutes!  According  to  Morrison  Foster,  it  was  performed 
by  Stephen  and  three  other  students  at  the  Commence- 
ment exercises  of  the  Athens  Academy  in  1839.  It  is 
recorded  that  the  piece  was  received  with  evident  delight 
by  the  audience  and  was  rewarded  with  "much  applause 
and  an  encore."  It  was  never  published  during  Stephen's 
lifetime,  but  is  included  in  the  volume  of  collected  songs 
and  compositions  issued  by  Morrison  Foster  in  1896, 
with  the  statement:  "It  has  never  previously  been  pub- 
lished, and  is  only  now  reproduced  from  my  memory, 
where  it  has  lain  for  fifty  years." 

In  itself,  of  course,  it  is  not  a  remarkable  composition, 
but  it  is  highly  creditable  to  the  ambition  and  originality 
of  a  thirteen-year-old  boy,  in  so  unfavorable  an  environ- 
ment, that  he  should  have  attempted  anything  at  all  in 
the  way  of  musical  self-expression.  It  consists  of  eight 
phrases,  each  eight  bars  in  length  and  each  repeated  with 
a  "second  ending."  It  is  in  the  key  of  C,  without  modu- 
lation ;  the  harmony  is  alternation  of  tonic  and  dominant- 
seventh,  with  just  one  appearance  of  the  subdominant. 
Stephen  "took  the  leading  part,"  and  must  have  been 
fairly  efficient  as  a  flutist  to  play  the  melody.  It  also 
argues  some  degree  of  musical  knowledge  and  skill  that 
he  was  able  to  set  down  his  ideas  in  musical  notation. 

R.  M.  Welles,  one  of  Stephen's  schoolmates,  gives  a 
slightly  different  version  of  the  first  performance  of  the 
"Tioga  Waltz,"  placing  it  two  years  later: 

An  exhibition  was  to  be  held  by  the  school  in  the  old  Presbyterian 
Church,  April  1st,  1841 — at  that  time  the  only  house  of  worship  in 

26 


YOUTH  27 


Athens.  Stephen  C.  Foster  composed  and  wrote  his  first  piece  of 
music,  I  think,  expressly  for  the  exhibition,  and  with  James  H. 
Forbes  and  William  F.  Warner,  the  three  practiced  the  piece,  which 
Stephen  named  "Tioga  Waltz"  and  played  it  upon  the  stage  with  their 
flutes — hot  "four  flutes,"  as  stated  by  his  brother,  Morrison  Foster. 

Robert  P.  Nevin  says  that  the  song  "Sadly  to  My 
Heart  Appealing"  was  written  during  this  same  year, 
but  Morrison  Foster  makes  no  mention  of  it.  Published 
nearly  twenty  years  later  by  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.,  after  its 
composer  had  become  famous,  it  is  one  of  the  crudest 
of  Foster's  songs  and,  quite  conceivably,  might  have  been 
the  work  of  a  thirteen-year-old  boy.  It  contains  a  little 
more  harmonic  material  than  the  "Tioga  Waltz,"  but 
in  spite  of  this  fact  it  is  both  repetitious  and  dull.  The 
words  are  so  badly  welded  to  the  music  as  to  arouse  the 
suspicion  that  they  may  not  have  been  the  original  in- 
spiration of  the  melody.  In  the  day  of  his  fame,  when 
everything  he  wrote  found  a  ready  market,  Stephen  may 
have  resurrected  this  old,  childish  tune  and  adapted  it 
to  verses  for  which  it  was  only  partially  suited.  The  pub- 
lished song,  copyrighted  in  1858,  ascribes  the  words  to 
Eliza  Sheridan  Carey,  as  "Lines  suggested  on  listening 
to  an  old  Scottish  melody." 

The  "poetry"  of  that  time  was  saturated  with  gloom, 
and  these  depressing  verses  may  have  appealed  to 
Stephen's  youthful  fancy  or  he  may  have  selected  them 
in  later  years.  His  own  literary  ability,  as  evidenced  by 
the  lyrics  with  which  he  provided  himself  for  more  than 
a  hundred  songs,  was  distinctly  above  that  of  the  author 
of  "Sadly  to  My  Heart  Appealing,"  which  offends  not 
only  against  good  taste,  but  also  against  English  gram- 
mar. 

Sadly  to  my  heart  appealing, 

Sadly,  sadly,  well-a-dayf 
Requiem-like  in  murmurs  stealing, 

Comes  that  old  familiar  lay; 

Wherefore  not  the  wonted  pleasure 

From  the  antique  music  spring  ? 
Why  that  well-remembered  measure 

Grieving  thoughts  and  anguish  bring  ? 


28 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Even  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  Stephen  could  probably 
have  done  better  than  this.  The  fourth  verse  is  especially 

doleful : 

Ghost-like  thus  they  wane  before  me, 
Quenched  their  lustre,  fled  their  bloom, 

While  pale  mem'ry,  tearful,  o'er  me 
Flings  the  shadow  of  the  tomb. 

There  is  nothing  characteristically  Scotch  about  the 
music  except  that  the  composer,  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, incorporated  in  the  eight-bar  prelude  the  re- 
frain of  the  song  "Robin  Adair." 

The  "applause  and  encore"  which  greeted  the  "Tioga 
Waltz"  do  not  seem  to  have  encouraged  the  youthful 
composer  to  any  further  productions,  for  aside  from 
"Sadly  to  My  Heart  Appealing,"  there  is  no  hint  of  any 
other  musical  compositions  during  the  ensuing  period  of 
three  years.  He  was  still  interested  in  music,  however, 
for  his  name  appears  on  the  roster  of  the  Towanda  Band, 
in  which  he  played  the  clarinet. 

The  summer  following  the  commencement  made 
memorable  by  the  performance  of  the  "Tioga  Waltz," 
he  was  with  Uncle  Struthers,  returning  to  Athens  in  the 
fall  and  spending  the  winter  in  school  there. 

A  letter  from  his  mother  to  William,  written  from 
Youngs  town  in  the  following  summer  (1840),  indicates 
that  he  was  still  under  the  protection  of  his  oldest 
brother.  It  also  suggests  that  his  future  career  had 
been  the  subject  of  some  discussion  in  the  family. 

Youngstown,  August  7th,  1840. 

.  .  .  .  As  to  Stephen,  I  leave  everything  regarding  the  future 
to  your  own  judgment,  West  Point  or  the  navy  I  have  no  choice; 
you  are  not  only  his  brother,  but  his  Father;  and  I  trust  all  his  feel- 
ings will  ascend  to  you  as  his  patron. 

.  .  .  .  Give  much  love  to  my  dear  boy  Stephen  and  endeavor 
to  realize  a  full  share  of  the  anxious  solicitude  for  your  welfare  and 
happiness  existing  in  the  breast  of  your  affectionate 

MOTHER. 

Stephen  evidently  returned  home  to  his  mother,  for    i 
there  is  another  reference  to  him  in  a  letter  written 
about  two  months  later : 


YOUTH  29 


Alleghany  town,  Oct.  18th,  1840. 

....  Stephen  and  I  have  the  house  to  ourselves  and  lonely 
enough  it  is.  So  much  so  that  it  has  induced  a  very  pretty  tortoise- 
shell  cat  to  take  up  her  boarding  and  lodging  with  us.  Business  is 
rather  dull  for  her  in  this  establishment,  therefore  she  lies  about  the 
fire,  taking  possession  of  the  middle  of  the  hearth-rug;  she  will  not 
be  looked  upon  as  a  loafer  until  she  gets  her  beautiful  hair  singed 
Notwithstanding  there  is  no  mice  in  the  premises,  she  looks  sleek 
and  nice,  for  Stephen  gives  her  all  the  little  bits  he  is  permitted  to 
gather  together  for  the  sake  of  her  company,  to  the  great  robbing  of 
Emeline,  a  half-grown  girl  who,  he  has  taken  it  into  his  head,  shall 
never  suffer  herself  to  look  at  him,  no  matter  how  you  fix  it.  He  is 
not  so  much  devoted  to  music  as  he  was;  other  studies  seem  to  be 
elevated  in  his  opinion;  he  reads  a  great  deal  and  fools  about  none 
at  all. 

This  last  sentence  shows  that  the  "Tioga  Waltz"  of 
the  year  before  was  not  the  extent  of  his  musical  activ- 
ity, but  we  do  not  know  just  what  form  his  devotion  to 
music  took,  nor  how  great  was  the  eclipse  through  which 
it  was  then  passing. 

It  must  have  been  reassuring  to  his  parents  to  note 
that,  in  spite  of  his  "weakness"  for  music,  he  "fools 
about  none  at  all."  His  visit  at  home  did  not  last  long, 
as  he  is  back  in  Athens  three  weeks  later.  He  writes 
from  there  to  his  brother  on  November  9th,  1840: 

Dear  Brother: 

As  Mr.  Mitchell  is  going  to  start  for  Towanda  to-day  I  thought 
I  would  write  you  a  line  concerning  my  studies,  as  he  says  you  will 
not  be  back  for  more  than  a  week. 

My  Philosophy,  Grammar  and  Arithmetic  not  being  enough  to 
keep  me  going,  I  would  ask  your  permission  to  study  either  Latin 
or  Bookkeeping. 

I  have  no  place  to  study  in  the  evenings  as  the  little  ones  at 
Mr.  Herrick's  keep  such  a  crying  and  talking  that  its  impossible  to 
read.  There  is  a  good  fire-place  in  my  room  and  if  you  will  just  say 
the  word,  I  will  have  a  fire  in  it  at  nights  and  learn  something. 
When  you  come,  don't  forget  my  waistcoat  at  the  tailors,  there  are 
several  little  articles  which  I  need  though  I  have  no  room  to  mention 
them.  I  must  stop  writing  as  I  am  very  cold. 
Your  affectionate  brother, 

STEPHEN. 

The  family  archives  do  not  state  whether  the  waist- 
coat arrived  safely  or  whether  the  young  student  was 
allowed  a  fire  in  his  own  room  by  which  to  study,  but 
however  that  may  be,  he  finished  the  year  in  the  school 


30 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

at  Athens.    There  is  a  reference  to  him  in  a  letter  from 
his  mother  to  William: 

Pittsburgh,  March  24,  1841. 

.     .     .     .    Poor  little  Stephen,  how  is  he?    I  think  of  him 
very  much  of  late. 

In  his  biography  of  his  brother,  Morrison  Foster  states 
that  Stephen  stayed  only  about  a  year  in  school  at 
Athens,  but  the  extracts  from  letters  quoted  above  and 
the  presence  of  his  name  in  the  Academy  catalogue  of 
1841,  prove  that  he  spent  at  least  two  and  a  half  years 
there.  This  is  of  some  importance,  as  it  indicates  that 
his  general  education  was  more  systematic  and  thorough 
than  is  sometimes  stated. 

The  year  after  Stephen  left  the  Athens  Academy,  the 
building  was  destroyed  by  fire.  It  was  on  a  Saturday 
afternoon  in  March.  Some  of  the  boys  had  been  amusing 
themselves  by  jumping  on  and  off  the  cakes  of  ice  floating 
in  the  river,  and  on  returning  to  the  school,  they  built 
a  roaring  fire  to  dry  their  wet  clothes.  The  wood  work 
surrounding  the  bottom  of  the  chimney  took  fire  and 
the  whole  building  was  burned,  including  the  library, 
minerals,  and  the  "astronomical  and  philosophical  ap- 
paratus" purchased  with  the  money  appropriated  by  the 
State. 

Stephen  left  Athens  at  the  end  of  the  school  term  in 
the  early  summer  of  this  year  (1841)  and  after  a  brief 
visit  with  his  parents  in  Alleghany  went  to  Canonsburg, 
where  he  entered  Jefferson  College.  {  He  was  not  happy 
there  and  did  not  stay  long,  and  this  episode  marks  the 
end  of  his  regular  schooling.  He  seems  to  have  been 
restless  and  to  have  been  groping  about  in  the  effort  to 
find  himself.  If  at  this  time  he  could  have  come  under 
the  influence  of  a  personality  in  sympathy  with  his  own 
and  could  have  received,  even  in  small  degree,  the  right 
kind  of  companionship  and  advice,  his  whole  life  and 
his  place  in  musical  history  would  probably  have  been 
immeasurably  enhanced.  While  he  had  made  only  a 


YOUTH  31 


few  childish  efforts  at  composition,  and  had  not  yet  begun 
his  career  as  a  song-writer,  this  period  is  obviously  the 
turning-point  of  his  life.  He  was  fifteen  years  old,  rest- 
less and  dissatisfied  with  school,  but  of  too  energetic  and 
original  a  temperament  to  drift  aimlessly.  The  urge 
toward  music  and  an  artistic  life  was  so  strong  as  to 
prevent  him  from  following  any  other  course,  and  yet 
there  seems  to  have  been  not  a  single  ray  of  light  to  point 
out  to  him  the  way  of  his  own  salvation.  Such  music 
as  he  came  in  contact  with  was  of  so  inferior  a  quality 
and  so  associated  with  idleness  and  dissipation  as  to  be 
regarded  at  best  only  as  an  amiable  weakness;  the  idea 
that  music  offered  an  opportunity  for  serious  study  and 
development,  or  promised  a  career  of  possible  worth  and 
dignity,  probably  never  entered  his  head  or  anyone  else's. 

For  a  few  years  this  period  of  unsuccessful  striving  to 
adjust  himself  to  his  environment  continued,  but  by  the 
time  he  had  found  his  real  vocation  and  had  begun  his 
career  as  a  song-writer,  the  unfortunate  weaknesses  of 
his  character  had  crystalized  and  developed  beyond  his 
control  and  he  was  never  again  able  to  direct  or  guide  his 
destiny.  The  unrealized  aspirations  of  his  youth  had 
left  him  only  a  sense  of  failure  and  of  longing  unfulfilled ; 
he  never  really  found  himself  and  the  motive  power  of 
ambition  and  self-respect  left  him,  never  to  return.  He 
drifted  along,  the  victim  of  emotions  too  strong  and  will- 
power too  weak  to  make  his  life  effective. 

He  entered  college*  cheerfully  and  hopefully  enough. 
He  wrote  to  William  from  Canonsburg,  July  24th,  1841 : 

My  dear  Brother, 

I  arrived  here  on  last  Tuesday  and  found  among  the  quantity  of 
students  at  this  institution  several  of  my  old  acquaintances. 

This  is  a  very  pretty  situation  where  I  board,  as  it  is  on  an  eleva- 
tion of  about  four  hundred  feet.  We  have  about  230  written  (en- 
rolled) students  here  at  the  present  time  and  a  library  of  about  1500 
volumes. 

Pa  paid  my  tuition  bill  in  advance  as  it  is  customary  at  this  place. 
There  are  several  other  bills  which  I  have  not  paid  as  I  have  not  the 
means,  such  as  $2  or  $3  for  joining  one  of  the  literary  societies;  as 
all  of  the  students  belong  to  them,  I  was  requested  to  join  one  and 


32  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 


put  it  off  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  as  Pa  had  not  much  more  than  the 
means  of  getting  along.  I  thought  I  would  write  you  this  letter 
that  you  might  consider  over  the  matter.  I  will  also  have  to  pay 
a  boarding  bill  at  the  end  of  every  month,  which  will  amount  to 
$8.50,  that  is  at  the  end  of  four  weeks  and  a  half,  which  generally 
makes  a  month,  and  if  you  see  fit  to  send  me  a  little  of  the  [word 
illegibk]  once  in  a  while  I  will  insure  you  there  is  no  inducements  here 
to  make  me  spend  my  money  unnecessarily.  I  will  also  have  to  pay 
about  $1.25  per  week  for  washing  as  I  have  to  keep  myself  very 
clean  here. 

I  would  inform  you  in  the  meantime  I  need  another  summer  coat 
or  two,  especially  for  Sunday. 

The  Ohio  river  is  very  low  and  falling  gradually.  The  boats  have 
ceased  running. 

As  I  have  made  out  a  middling  long  letter  and  am  clear  out  of 
information  (news)  I  would  only  say,  wishing  you  a  safe  journey 
home  and  through  life  and  that  I  may  some  day  be  fit  to  render 
thanks  to  you  for  your  unceasing  kindness  to  me,  I  remain  your  ever 
grateful  and  affectionate  brother, 

STEPHEN. 

These  noble  and  worthy  sentiments  did  not  serve  to 
keep  him  in  college  for  very  long,  as  three  weeks  later  his 

mother  writes  to  William: 

Pittsburgh,  August  12th,  1841. 

.  .  .  Stephen  will  not  stay  at  Canonsburg;  he  says  he  has 
lost  conceit  of  himself  because  he  was  once  in  his  life  a  great  fool  and 
that  was  when  he  did  not  go  back  with  brother  William.  He  begs 
me  to  ask  you  to  say  that  he  must  board  with  Ma  and  go  to  day 
school.  Indeed,  if  I  am  in  Alleghany  town,  I  shall  be  almost  too 
lonely  without  one  child  with  me,  for  if  I  should  be  ill  I  would  be 
in  a  bad  way. 

Stephen's  own  rather  lame  explanation  of  his  leaving 
school  is  contained  in  the  following  letter  to  his  brother, 
written  from  Pittsburgh,  August  28: 

My  dear  Brother, 

I  suppose  you  are  surprised  and  probably  displeased  at  me  for 
not  being  more  punctual  in  writing  to  you  every  fortnight  as  you 
wished  to  have  me  do.  I  will  therefore  proceed  to  make  my  best 
excuses. 

When  I  wrote  you  from  Canonsburg,  I  did  not  tell  you  whether 
I  liked  the  place  or  not  (if  I  remember  right),  but  now  I  will  take 
the  liberty  of  telling  you  that  I  became  more  disgusted  with  the 
place  as  long  as  I  stayed  in  it.  It  is  not  a  good  time  to  begin  college 
in  the  middle  of  the  session,  as  I  could  not  get  into  any  class  for 
three  or  four  days  after  I  went  there, and  when  I  did  get  started  in  a 
recitation  it  was  in  irregular  hours. 

If  I  had  gone  as  a  regular  student  I  might  have  been  examined 
and  got  along  very  easily,  but  going  as  I  did,  just  to  stay  a  session 
or  two,  I  suppose  they  did  not  care  much  whether  I  was  attentive  or 
not.  Besides  when  I  had  been  there  but  five  days  I  took  sick  from 
a  dizziness  in  my  head  occasioned  by  an  overflow  of  the  blood,  and 


YOUTH  33 


was  confined  in  bed  for  two  days.     (Whenever  I  would  go  to  raise 
up  out  of  bed  I  would  become  so  dizzy  that  I  could  scarcely  see.) 

In  the  night  of  the  second  day  of  my  sickness,  my  nose  took  to 
bleeding  which  made  me  feel  better  the  next  morning. 

It  so  happened  that  one  of  the  students  was  coming  into  town 
that  day  (Samuel  Montgomery  of  Pittsburgh)  and  I  concluded  I 
would  come  in  with  him  as  he  asked  me  to. 

When  I  left  Canon sburg  your  letter  had  not  arrived.  So  that 
I  wrote  to  Mr.  Mercer  to  forward  it  as  soon  as  it  arrived,  but  never- 
theless I  did  not  receive  it  until  about  two  weeks  after  you  wrote  it. 
Although  you  told  me  not  to  wait  for  your  letters  when  I  wrote,  still 
I  expected  it  every  day,  so  that  I  was  put  beyond  the  regular  time. 

I  hope  you  will  pardon  me  for  writing  to  you  so  extensively  on  the 
money  subject.  But  at  the  same  time  I  will  let  you  know  that  a  boy 
comes  out  mighty  slim  in  Canonsburg  without  some  of  it  in  his 
pocket.  Pa  had  not  told  me  that  he  would  furnish  me  with  as  much 
money  as  I  needed  or  I  would  not  have  troubled  you  on  that  account. 
As  we  were  all  talking  over  different  subjects  the  other  evening, 
among  others  the  subject  of  the  Navy  was  talked  of.  Now  to  be 
Midshipman  is  just  what  I  fancy.  Pa  is  away  in  Washington  County 
at  a  temperance  meeting  and  will  return  this  evening  I  think. 

With  these  few  lines  I  will  hurry  to  a  close  by  stating  that  we  are 
all  well  and  in  good  spirits.  Hoping  that  you  will  ever  be  blessed 
with  the  same  qualities,  your  ever  affectionate  and  justly  dutiful 
brother, 

STEPHEN. 

I  will  try  hereafter  to  come  up  to  the  mark  in  the  letter- writing 
line. 

The  idea  of  entering  the  Navy  which  so  appealed  to 
Stephen  seems  to  have  been  abandoned,  as  it  is  not  men- 
tioned again.  A  few  days  later  there  is  a  letter  from  his 
father  to  William  which  gives  a  clear  idea  of  Stephen's 

character  at  this  time: 

Pittsburgh,  September  3,  1841. 

.  .  .  .  I  regret  extremely  that  Stephen  has  not  been  able  to 
appreciate  properly  your  generous  exertions  in  his  behalf  by  avail- 
ing himself  of  the  advantages  of  a  college  education,  which  will 
cause  him  much  regret  before  he  arrives  at  my  age  and  he  will  no 
doubt  express  these  regrets  in  much  sorrow  to  you,  should  you  both 
live  long  after  I  shall  be  no  more.  He  is  at  school  now  with  Mr. 
Moody,  a  first  rate  teacher  of  mathematics  in  Pittsburgh  and  it 
is  a  source  of  much  comfort  to  your  mother  and  myself  that  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  any  evil  propensities  to  indulge;  he  seeks  no 
associates  and  his  leisure  hours  are  all  devoted  to  musick,  for  which 
he  possesses  a  strange  talent. 

At  this  time  William  B.  Foster,  Sr.,  was  mayor  of 
Alleghany  City.  There  was  some  idea  of  sending  Stephen 
back  to  Athens  to  school,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  He 
spent  the  winter  at  home  and  remained  a  problem  to  his 


34 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

worthy  parents.  No  one  seems  to  have  suggested  the 
"strange  talent  for  musick"  as  a  solutiofr  of  the  difficulty. 
The  following  Spring  his  father  again  refers  to  him  in  a 
letter  to  William. 

Dear  William, 

I  wish  you  could  make  a  target-bearer  of  Stephen,  and  find  em- 
ployment for  him  that  would  take  him  through  the  summer.  He  is 
uncommonly  studious  at  home,  but  dislikes  going  to  school.  He 
says  there  is  too  much  confusion  in  the  school.  I  do  not  like  to  urge 
him  so  long  as  he  discovers  no  evil  or  idle  propensities.  He  says  he 
would  like  to  be  in  brother  William's  sunshine. 

(Later  in  the  same  month) : 

Alleghany,  March  30,  1842 

.  .  .  .  I  wrote  you  on  the  subject  of  Stephen  and  expect  to 
hear  from  you  soon ;  he  is  a  very  good  boy,  but  I  cannot  get  him  to 
stick  to  school.  He  reads  a  great  deal  and  writes  some  here  in  the 
office  with  me. 

Robert  P.  Nevin  described  Stephen  as  "a  boy  of  deli- 
cate constitution,  not  addicted  to  the  active  sports  and 
vigorous  habits  of  boys  of  his  age.  He  only  cared  for  a 
few  intimate  friends,  and  his  character,  thus  secluded, 
naturally  took  on  a  sensitive,  meditative  cast  and  a  grow- 
ing disrelish  for  severer  tasks." 

Morrison  Foster  and  Nevin  both  state  that  Stephen's 
first  published  song,  "Open  Thy  Lattice,  Love,"  was 
composed  when  he  was  sixteen,  although  it  was  not  pub- 
lished until  two  years  later.  The  words,  which  are 
anonymous,  were  taken  from  "The  New  Mirror";  the 
song  was  published  by  George  Willig,  of  Philadelphia 
(not  Baltimore,  as  Morrison  Foster  states). 

The  song  is  a  distinct  advance  over  the  "Tioga  Waltz" 
and  "Sadly  to  My  Heart  Appealing."  Simple  as  the 
harmonic  outline  is,  it  is  sufficient  to  clothe  the  felicitous 
melody,  which  flows  with  the  grace  and  spontaneity  of 
Foster's  best  work. 

The  Fosters  were  then  living  in  Alleghany  City  in  a 
large  two-family  house  facing  the  Common.  The  other 
half  of  the  house  was  occupied  by  the  family  of  a  retired 
Army  officer,  Captain  Pentland.  The  title  page  of  "Open 
Thy  Lattice,  Love"  states  that  it  was  "composed  for 


"The  Old  Folks  at  Home" 
The  Parents  of  Stephen  C.  Foster 


YOUTH  35 


and  dedicated  to  Miss  Susan  E.  Pentland,"  who  was 
Captain  Pentland's  daughter. 

There  is  more  than  a  suggestion  in  the  reminiscences 
of  that  time  of  a  romance  between  Susan  Pentland  and 
Stephen,  but  if  there  was  such  an  affair,  it  could  not  have 
assumed  very  serious  proportions  at  the  time  this  song 
was  written,  for  Susan  was  only  eleven,  and  Stephen 
sixteen.  Perhaps  the  real  attraction  existed  not  so  much 
in  the  person  of  the  fair  young  Susan,  as  in  the  fact  that 
the  Pentlands  had  a  piano  and  the  Fosters  had  none. 
Pianos  were  scarce  in  the  forties  and  fifties,  and  the 
possession  of  one  must  have  been  a  mark  of  great  dis- 
tinction. To  Stephen's  starving  young  soul,  the  Pent- 
land  piano  must  have  been  as  an  oasis  in  a  dreary  desert. 
Later  the  Fosters  acquired  a  piano,  but  the  date  of  this 
important  event  is  a  mystery. 

At  the  present  time  there  are  three  pianos  which  claim 
the  honor  of  having  inspired  Stephen  Foster  to  musical 
productivity.  In  the  Carnegie  Museum  in  Schenley 
Park,  Pittsburgh,  is  a  piano  which  once  belonged  to 
Stephen  Foster.  Miss  Pentland's  piano  is  now  in  the 
Foster  Homestead  on  Penn  Avenue.  The  third  piano, 
with  some  claim  to  having  been  the  "favorite,"  belonged 
to  Miss  Mary  Woods.  It  was  brought  to  Pittsburgh  in 
1849  by  Henry  Kleber,  and  is  said  to  be  one  of  the  first 
two  upright  pianos  to  cross  the  Alleghany  mountains. 
It  was  made  in  Leipzig,  Germany,  by  Friedrich  &  Haupt, 
and  preceded  by  many  years  the  first  attempts  by  Amer- 
ican manufacturers  to  make  uprights,  their  attention 
being  confined  for  many  years  after  the  importation  of 
this  instrument  to  grand  and  square  pianos. 

The  story  goes  that  while  these  two  upright  pianos 
were  on  exhibition  in  Mr.  Kleber's  store,  Mrs.  Woods, 
the  mother  of  the  present  owner,  selected  one  of  them, 
after  testing  them  both.  Later  in  the  same  day,  before 
the  one  selected  by  Mrs.  Woods  had  been  delivered  to 
her,  Stephen  Foster  tried  the  two  pianos  and  chose  the 


36 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

one  already  sold.  He  was  much  disappointed  when  told 
that  Mrs.  Woods  had  already  bought  it.  It  is  a  tradition 
in  the  Foster  family  that  Stephen  spent  many  hours  in 
the  Woods'  home,  playing  this  piano,  and  it  is  probable 
that  many  of  his  songs  were  worked  out  on  it. 

This,  however,  was  later  than  the  period  now  under 
consideration.  The  Woods'  piano  did  not  appear  on 
the  scene  until  seven  years  after  the  composition  of 
"Open  Thy  Lattice,  Love."  In  the  meantime  Stephen 
had  had  some  experience  in  business,  for  which  he  was 
ill  suited,  and  had  yielded  more  and  more  to  his  "strange 
talent"  for  music.  The  speculations  in  the  family  as  to 
Stephen's  future  do  not  seem  to  have  arrived  at  any  very 
satisfactory  conclusion,  and  he  was  not  able  to  map  out 
a  career  for  himself.  He  was  following  the  line  of  least 
resistance,  which  led  him  inevitably  into  song-writing. 

In  the  year  1844  occurred  a  Presidential  campaign 
which  was  distinguished  by  political  song-singing.  Pres- 
ident Tyler  was  a  candidate  for  reelection,  his  opponent 
being  James  K.  Polk.  The  principal  issue  of  the  cam- 
paign was  the  controversy  with  England  over  the 
boundary  of  "the  Oregon  Country,"  a  controversy  which 
produced  the  familiar  slogan,  "Fifty-four-forty  or  fight." 
The  country  seemed  to  be  on  the  brink  of  war  with 
England  and  the  excitement  during  the  campaign  was 
intense.  There  were  innumerable  parades  and  proces- 
sions and  both  parties  organized  singing  clubs  to  give 
expression  to  their  enthusiasm  in  the  political  songs  of  the 
day.  After  the  conclusion  of  the  campaign,  most  of 
these  singing  societies  went  out  of  existence,  although 
a  few  lingered  on,  gradually  losing  their  political  char- 
acter and  becoming  purely  social  clubs. 

Among  the  organizations  which  survived  was  one 
which  met  twice  a  week  at  the  Foster  home.  Negro 
melodies  were  most  popular  with  this  singing-club,  and 
one  evening  Stephen  Foster  produced  a  composition  of 
his  own.  It  was  called  "Louisiana  Belle."  A  week  later 


YOUTH  37 


he  had  another  song  to  try  out,  "Uncle  Ned."  This  was 
in  1845,  when  Stephen  was  nineteen.  Neither  song  was 
published  until  two  years  later,  although  they  are  said 
to  have  become  widely  popular  in  Pittsburgh,  being 
passed  by  "word  of  mouth." 

It  was  decided  in  the  family  councils  that  it  was  high 
time  for  Stephen  to  get  to  work,  so  the  following  year, 
1846,  he  was  sent  to  Cincinnati,  where  he  became  a  book- 
keeper for  his  brother  Dunning,  who  was  in  the  com- 
mission business.  Morrison  Foster  says  that  his  books 
were  models  of  neatness  and  accuracy,  but  the  work 
must  have  been  very  distasteful  to  him,  and  he  did  not 
remain  long,  returning  to  Pittsburgh  in  1848. 

It  was  while  he  was  in  Cincinnati  that  his  musical  pro- 
ductions received  an  impetus  sufficient  to  suggest  the 
idea  that  he  might  find  in  music  a  career  worthy  of  his 
serious  attention.  The  song  "There's  a  Good  Time 
Coming"  was  published  in  October,  1846,  by  Peters  & 
Field  of  Cincinnati.  The  origin  of  this  song  is  not  men- 
tioned by  either  Nevin  or  Morrison  Foster.  It  was 
"composed  for  and  respectfully  dedicated  to  Miss  Mary 
D.  Keller,  of  Pittsburgh."  The  words  are  "Lines  from 
the  London  Daily  News": 

We  may  not  live  to  see  the  day, 
But  earth  shall  glisten  in  the  ray 

Of  the  good  time  corning: 
Cannon  balls  may  aid  the  truth, 

But  there's  a  weapon  stronger, 
We'll  win  our  battle  by  its  aid, 

Wait  a  little  longer. 

There  are  eight  verses  in  all,  each  celebrating  some 
feature  of  the  good  time  coming: 


War  in  all  men's  eyes  shall  be 
A  monster  of  iniquity, 

In  the  good  time  coming, 
Nations  shall  not  quarrel  then 

To  prove  which  is  the  stronger, 
Nor  slaughter  men  for  glory's  sake, 

Wait  a   litf-lA  Irmcrpr 


\ji    aiaugiiLd    uicii  iw* 

Wait  a  little  longer. 


38 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

And  a  poor  man's  family 
Shall  not  be  his  misery, 

In  the  good  time  coming; 
Every  child  shall  be  a  help 

To  make  his  right  arm  stronger; 
The  happier  he  the  more  he  has, 

Wait  a  little  longer. 

Little  children  shall  not  toil 
Under  or  above  the  soil, 

In  the  good  time  coming, 
But  shall  play  in  healthful  fields, 

Till  limbs  and  minds  grow  stronger; 
And  everyone  shall  read  and  write, 

Wait  a  little  longer. 

"There's  a  Good  Time  Coming"  does  not  seem  to 
have  had  much  success,  but  the  following  year  a  group 
of  five  songs  was  published,  which  not  only  brought 
fame  to  their  author  and  a  fortune  to  their  publisher, 
but  which  mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  music  in 
America. 


IV 
FIRST  SONGS 

That  form  of  theatrical  entertainment  known  as  the 
"negro  minstrel  show"  was  in  the  first  hey-day  of  its 
popularity.  It  originated  prior  to  1830,  but  did  not 
reach  its  full  development  until  more  than  ten  years 
later.  Like  many  other  great  discoveries,  it  seems  to 
have  been  stumbled  on  by  accident.  Its  origin  is  cre- 
dited to  an  actor  named  Thomas  D.  ("Daddy")  Rice, 
and  it  grew  out  of  his  singing,  in  costume  and  character, 
a  negro  song,  "Jump  Jim  Crow."  Henry  E.  Krehbiel, 
in  his  book,  "Afro-American  Folksongs,"  says  that  "if 
the  best  evidence  obtainable  on  the  subject  is  to  be  be- 
lieved," Rice  caught  both  song  and  character  from  the 
singing  and  dancing  of  an  old  deformed  and  decrepit 
negro  in  Louisville. 

Writing  in  1867,  Robert  P.  Nevin  gives  the  following 
account:  Rice  observed  one  day  in  Cincinnati  a  negro 
stage-driver  singing  the  song: 

Turn  about  and  wheel  about,  and  do  jist  so, 
And  ebery  time  I  turn  about,  I  jump  Jim  Crow, 

and  conceived  the  idea  that  the  song  and  character  be- 
hind the  footlights  might  tickle  the  fancy  of  the  public 
as  much  as  the  sprig  of  shillallah  and  the  red  nose  then 
popular  among  light  comedians. 

He  did  not  have  an  opportunity  to  test  the  idea  until 
the  following  autumn,  when  he  was  playing  in  Pitts- 
burgh. The  theatre,  located  on  Fifth  Street,  is  described 
as  "an  unpretending  structure,  rudely  built  of  boards 
and  of  moderate  proportions,  but  sufficient  to  satisfy 
the  taste  and  secure  the  comfort  of  the  few  who  dared 
to  face  the  consequences  and  lend  their  patronage  to  an 
establishment  under  the  ban  of  the  Scotch-Irish  Calvin- 
ists."  According  to  Nevin,  Rice  obtained  his  costume 

39 


40 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

from  a  negro  in  attendance  at  Griffith's  Hotel  on  Wood 
Street,  named  Cuff,  who  won  a  precarious  living  by  let- 
ting out  his  open  mouth  as  a  mark  for  boys  to  pitch 
pennies  into  at  three  paces,  and  by  carrying  passengers' 
trunks  from  steamboats  to  hotels.  The  negro  accom- 
panied Rice  to  the  theatre  one  evening  and  loaned  his 
costume,  for  a  brief  period ,  to  the  service  of  art.  Rice's 
appearance,  with  blackened  face,  clad  in  a  ragged  old 
coat,  a  forlornly  dilapidated  pair  of  shoes  composed 
equally  of  patches  and  places  for  patches,  a  coarse  straw 
hat  in  a  melancholy  condition  of  rent  and  collapse,  and 
a  black  woolly  wig,  created  a  sensation  which  was 
greatly  heightened  by  the  rendition  of  the  "Jim  Crow" 
song  and  dance.  But  the  success  of  the  occasion  was 
made  doubly  sure  when  the  negro,  hearing  the  whistle 
of  a  steamboat  approaching  Monongahela  Wharf,  and 
fearing  loss  of  both  business  and  prestige  among  his  asso- 
ciates, rushed  half-clad  onto  the  stage  and  demanded  his 
clothes. 

"So,"  writes  Nevin,  "was  born  a  school  of  music 
destined  to  excel  in  popularity  all  others,  and  to  make 
the  name  of  an  obscure  actor  famous. 

"The  next  day  the  song  of 'Jim  Crow' was  on  every- 
body's lips.  Clerks  hummed  it  at  counters,  artisans  at 
their  toils  to  the  thunder  of  sledge  and  hammer,  boys 
whistled  it  in  the  streets,  ladies  warbled  it  in  parlors  and 
housemaids  repeated  it  to  the  chink  of  crockery  in  the 
kitchen."  The  tune  was  written  down  and  provided 
with  a  piano  accompaniment  by  W.  C.  Peters,  a  music 
dealer  with  a  shop  on  Market  Street,  Pittsburgh.  The 
music  was  reproduced  on  stone  with  an  elaborately  em- 
bellished title-page  by  John  Newton,  being  the  first 
specimen  of  lithography  ever  executed  in  Pittsburgh. 

Although  Rice  is  usually  credited  with  having  been 
the  first  "negro  minstrel,"  his  performance  was  not  by 
any  means  the  first  time  that  a  negro  character  had  ap- 
peared on  the  stage  to  sing  a  song  in  character.  As  far 


FIRST  SONGS  41 


as  is  known,  probably  the  first  negro  character  on  the 
English  stage  was  "Mungo,"  a  character  in  Bickers taff's 
comic  opera,  The  Padlock,  at  Drury  Lane  Theatre  in 
London,  in  1768.  An  old  program,  dated  1788,  records 
the  performance  in  London  of  a  ''comic  dance,"  entitled 
"An  Ethiopian  Festival."  There  are  other  recorded  per- 
formances of  a  somewhat  similar  character,  but  Rice's 
success  was  so  great  and  the  vogue  he  established  so 
enduring  that  the  honor  of  being  the  founder  of  the 
amusement  may  be  left  with  him. 

"Jim  Crow"  remained  a  nightly  attraction  at  the 
theatre  until  the  end  of  the  season,  when  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  "Beale's  Long  Room,"  at  the  corner  of  Third 
and  Market  Streets.  Another  song  and  dance,  "Clar  de 
Kitchen,"  was  added  to  it,  soon  followed  by  "Lucy 
Long,"  "Sich  a  Gittin'  Upstairs,"  "Longtail  Blue,"  and 
others,  until  a  sizable  repertoire  had  been  built  up. 

Rice  remained  in  Pittsburgh  for  two  years,  after  which 
he  took  his  negro  entertainment  to  Philadelphia,  Boston 
and  New  York,  and  later  to  England,  where  he  enjoyed 
a  vogue  for  a  number  of  years.  His  idea  was  followed 
by  others;  for  many  years,  however,  the  negro  song  and 
dance  flourished,  not  on  the  theatrical  stage,  but  in  con- 
nection with  travelling  circuses  and  menageries.  Be- 
tween acts  the  "extra vaganzaist"  would  appear  in  cork 
and  wool  to  sing  "Coal  Black  Rose,"  "Jim  Along,  Joe," 
or  "Sittin'  on  a  Rail,"  and  to  share  the  laughter  and 
applause  with  the  clowns  and  monkeys.  The  first  per- 
formers sang  alone,  with  an  accompaniment  by  the  circus 
band,  but  couples  soon  appeared  and  provided  their  own 
accompaniments  on  the  banjo  and  bones. 

In  1827  George  W.  Dixon  was  singing  "Coal  Black 
Rose"  in  Albany.  In  1829  he  appeared  at  the  Chatham 
Square  Theatre  in  New  York,  singing  this  song  and 
"Longtail  Blue"  and  "Zip  Coon"  in  character,  with  a 
banjo.  In  1830  the  New  York  "Mirror"  said  of  Dixon: 
"In  his  imitations  of  African  character  he  is  far  inferior 


42 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

to  Tom  Blakeley.    Such  exhibitions,  by  the  way,  ought 
to  be  confined  to  the  circus." 

The  "Courier  and  Enquirer"  thus  described  Rice's 
appearance  in  New  York  on  November  25th,  1832 : 

When  he  (Rice)  came  forward  to  sing  his  celebrated  song  ("Jim 
Crow")  before  an  overcrowded  house,  many  of  the  audience  were  on 
the  stage  and  had  mixed  themselves  up  hilariously  in  the  drama  of 
"Richard  III,"  forming  a  ring  about  Booth  and  his  opponent  in  the 
battle  scene.  They  not  only  made  Rice  repeat  the  song  some 
twenty  times,  but  hemmed  him  in  so  that  he  actually  had  no  room 
to  perform  the  little  dancing  and  turning  about  appertaining  to  the 
song.  In  the  "after-piece,"  when  a  supper  table  was  spread,  the 
hungry  swooped  down  like  harpies  and  devoured  the  edibles. 

With  increasing  popularity,  the  black-faced  "song  and 
dance  artists"  forsook  the  society  of  the  sawdust  ring 
and  set  up  in  business  for  themselves.  Singers  organized 
themselves  into  quartet  bands,  adding  the  riddle  and 
tambourine  to  the  banjo  and  bones,  introduced  the  hoe- 
down  and  conundrums  to  fill  the  intervals  between  songs, 
and  went  from  town  to  town,  hiring  halls  where  there 
were  no  theatres. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  these  "wandering  minstrel"  com- 
panies was  that  of  Nelson  Kneass,  who,  in  addition  to 
singing,  and  playing  the  banjo,  could  also  play  the  piano, 
a  distinction  not  possessed  by  many  of  his  confreres. 
He  also  had  some  ambitions  as  a  composer,  and  provided 
himself  and  his  "minstrels"  with  a  large  part  of  their  pro- 
gram. He  has  been  credited  with  being  the  author  and 
composer  of  the  song  "Ben  Bolt,"  an  honor  to  which  he 
is  not  entitled.  The  poem,  as  is  well  known,  is  by 
Thomas  Dunn  English;  the  melody  is  an  old  German 
tune  which  was  adapted  to  the  words  by  Kneass,  who 
first  sang  the  song  at  a  theatrical  performance  in  Pitts- 
burgh. 

Kneass  visited  Pittsburgh  from  year  to  year,  and 
finally  disbanded  his  company  there  in  1845,  owing  to 
the  "retirement  to  private  life"  of  one  of  his  "artists," 
one  "Mr.  Murphy."  Some  time  after  this  a  certain  Mr. 
Andrews,  dealer  in  confections,  cakes  and  ices,  rented  a 


FIRST  SONGS  43 


second-floor  hall  on  Wood  Street,  furnished  it  with  chairs 
and  small  tables,  erected  a  stage  at  one  end,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  give  a  series  of  "entertainments."  Admission 
was  ten  cents,  the  ticket  purchased  at  the  door  being 
accepted  later  at  face  value  toward  payment  for  what- 
ever might  be  called  for  at  the  tables.  The  enterprise 
was  advertised  widely  and  Kneass  was  engaged  as  im- 
presario. To  keep  up  public  interest,  prizes  were  offered 
from  time  to  time,  a  bracelet  for  the  best  conundrum, 
a  ring  with  an  imitation  ruby  setting  for  the  best  comic 
song,  a  gold  chain  for  the  best  sentimental  song,  and 
finally  a  silver  cup  for  the  best  negro  song.  The  silver 
cup  was  placed  on  exhibition  and  was  to  be  awarded  by 
a  committee  designated  by  the  audience  for  the  purpose 
at  the  time  of  the  contest. 

These  "saloon  entertainments"  were  not  uncommon 
at  this  period,  as  they  occupied  a  neutral  ground  upon 
which  eschewers  of  theatrical  performances  could  meet 
with  abettors  of  playhouses,  a  consideration  of  ruling 
importance  in  Pittsburgh,  where  so  many  people  carried 
on  their  legitimate  inheritance  of  Cameronian  fidelity 
to  the  old  Presbyterian  creed  and  practice. 

Stephen  Foster  was  in  Cincinnati  at  this  time,  which 
probably  was  1846  or  1847,  but  was  persuaded  by  his 
brother  Morrison  to  send  a  manuscript  for  Kneass's 
contest  in  Pittsburgh.  Stephen  sent  the  song  '"Way 
Down  South,  Where  de  Cane  Grows."  It  did  not  win 
the  prize,  but  both  Morrison  Foster  and  Nevin  place 
considerable  importance  on  this  contest  and  the  part  it 
played  in  turning  Stephen's  attention  more  and  more 
toward  song-writing. 

Morrison  Foster  relates  that  on  the  morning  following 
the  song-contest,  he  went  to  the  United  States  Court  to 
take  out  a  copyright  on  the  words  and  music  in  Stephen 
Foster's  name,  and  found  Nelson  Kneass  there  attempt- 
ing to  copyright  the  song  in  his  own  name.  "I  informed 
Judge  Irwin  of  the  fraud,"  says  Morrison  Foster,  "and 


44 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

the  rogue  was  glad  to  be  allowed  to  depart  unpunished." 
The  copyright,  however,  was  not  taken  out  until  1848, 
by  W.  C.  Peters. 

In  the  meantime  Stephen  had  given  the  manuscripts 
of  this  and  others  of  his  songs  to  W.  C.  Peters,  the  music- 
dealer  who  had  arranged  and  published  "Jump  Jim 
Crow"  in  Pittsburgh  fifteen  years  before.  Peters  had 
removed  to  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  had  established  a  music 
business  there.  (Morrison  Foster  says  that  Peters  had 
at  one  time  been  a  music  teacher  to  the  Foster  family.) 
Stephen  had  known  him  in  Pittsburgh,  and  had  sent  the 
manuscripts  to  him  at  his  request  without  any  idea  of 
their  value.  This  fact  is  very  significant,  for  it  shows  that 
neither  Stephen  nor,  presumably,  any  of  his  family  or 
friends,  had  as  yet  any  inkling  that  his  "strange  talent 
for  musick"  could  be  anything  else  than  a  "weakness." 
Three  of  the  songs  presented  to  Peters  were  among 
Foster's  most  popular  works;  the  publisher  is  said  to  have 
made  $10,000  out  of  them,  thereby  establishing  a  pub- 
lishing business  which  flourished  for  many  years. 

The  first  of  the  songs  to  be  published  was  "Louisiana 
Belle,"  which  appeared  in  October,  1847.  The  copyright 
was  taken  out  by  W.  C.  Peters  for  "  'Louisiana  Belle,' 
written  for  and  sung  by  Joseph  Murphy,  of  the  'Sable 
Harmonists'."  No  mention  is  made  of  the  composer. 
The  song  was  the  first  of  five  "Songs  of  the  Sable  Har- 
monists." The  others  were  copyrighted  and  published 
in  1848,  three  by  Stephen  Foster,  "O  Susanna,"  "Uncle 
Ned,"  "Away  Down  South,"  and  the  last  of  the  five, 
"Wake  Up  Jake,  or  the  Old  Iron  City,"  by  George 
Holman. 

The  records  of  the  Copyright  Office  in  Washington 
furnish  some  interesting  testimony  in  support  of  Robert 
P.  Nevin's  statement  that  these  songs  had  achieved  great 
popularity  before  their  publication,  being  spread  about 
orally  among  the  people  in  true  folk-song  manner.  The 
authentic  version  of  "Uncle  Ned"  was  deposited  for 


FIRST  SONGS  45 


copyright  on  December  30th,  1848,  by  W.  C.  Peters, 
of  Louisville.  On  May  16th,  1848,  seven  months  prior 
to  the  Peters  publication,  a  version  of  the  song  had  been 
deposited  for  copyright  by  W.  E.  Millet,  of  New  York, 
under  the  title,  "  'Old  Uncle  Ned,'  written  and  composed 
for  Wm.  Roark  of  the  Sable  Harmonists,  by  S.  C.  Foster 
of  Cincinnati."  Later  in  the  same  year,  on  December 
16th,  just  two  weeks  before  the  deposit  of  the  Peters 
edition,  the  publisher,  F.  D.  Benteen,  of  Baltimore, 
deposited  for  copyright  a  song  with  the  title,  "  'Old  Uncle 
Ned,'  an  Ethiopian  melody  arranged  with  sympho- 
nies and  accompaniment  for  the  voice  and  piano  by 
R.  O.  Wilson." 

Oscar  G.  Sonneck,  formerly  Chief  of  the  Music  Di- 
vision of  the  Congressional  Library,  calls  attention  to 
the  fact  that  Stephen  Foster  is  not  mentioned  on  this 
version  of  the  song,  although  it  is  merely  an  arrangement 
(and  a  poor  one  at  that)  of  the  original  song.  The  ar- 
ranger apparently  remembered  only  half  of  Foster's 
melody.  The  other  half  is  woefully  incorrect. 

Evidently  the  songs  had  been  made  popular  by  a 
minstrel  company  known  as  "The  Sable  Harmonists," 
and  their  publication  was  the  result  rather  than  the  cause 
of  their  popularity.  It  would  also  appear  that  Stephen 
Foster  had  no  idea  of  the  commercial  value  of  his  songs, 
and  gave  manuscript  copies  of  them  to  any  who  asked. 
This  attitude  toward  his  music  is  further  corroborated 
by  the  following  letter  written  a  few  months  after  the 
publication  of  the  songs: 

Cincinnati,  Ohio,  May  25,  1849. 
Mr.  Wm.  E.  Miller, 
Dear  Sir: 

I  hasten  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  favor  of  the  21st,  and  to 
give  you  what  information  I  can  touching  upon  the  subject  of  your 
inquiry. 

I  gave  manuscript  copies  of  each  of  the  songs,  "Louisiana  Belle," 
"Uncle  Ned,"  and  "O  Susannah"  to  several  persons  before  I  gave 
them  to  Mr.  Peters  for  publication,  but  in  neither  instance  was  there 
any  permission  or  restriction  in  regard  to  publishing  them  unless 
contained  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Roark,  accompanying  the  manuscript 


46 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

of  "Uncle  Ned,"  although  of  this  I  am  doubtful.     Mr.    Peters  has 
my  receipt  for  each  of  the  songs. 

The  only  information  which  I  can  give  you  in  regard  to  the  dates, 
as  my  memory  does  not  serve  me,  must  be  in  copying  the  years 
named  on  the  title  pages  of  the  Cincinnati  publications  \sic\  from 
which  I  infer  that  "Louisiana  Belle"  was  copyrighted  in  1847,  the 
others  in  1848. 

If  I  can  see  Mr.  Roark,  who  lives  in  our  city,  I  will  give  you 
further  information  in  regard  to  the  letter  which  I  wrote  him. 

I  have  the  honor,  Sir,  to  subscribe  myself, 

Very  respectfully,  STEPHEN  FOSTER. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  Peters  publications  are 
referred  to  as  "the  Cincinnati  publications."  Morrison 
Foster  refers  to  Peters  as  being  in  business  in  Cincinnati, 
although  the  copyrights  were  taken  out  by  W.  C.  Peters, 
"of  Louisville."  (Later  the  name  appears  on  the  copy- 
rights, "W.  C.  Peters,  Cincinnati.") 

Unfortunately,  the  "letter  to  Mr.  Roark"  and  the 
"further  information"  referred  to  have  not  survived  the 
passage  of  time,  and  there  is  no  other  evidence  on  the 
subject. 

With  the  exception  of  "Uncle  Ned"  the  songs  are  not 
especially  characteristic  of  Stephen  Foster,  nor  typical 
of  him  at  his  best.  They  are  essentially  "minstrel" 
songs,  and  require  burnt  cork  and  a  banjo  to  reveal  their 
true  character.  Negro  minstrelsy  had  not  made  much 
artistic  progress  since  its  beginning  about  1830.  The 
negro  was  still  made  a  buffoon,  a  crude  caricature.  Gib- 
berish had  become  a  staple  of  composition,  the  wit  of  the 
performance  consisting  largely  in  the  misuse  of  language. 
A  small  amount  of  original  composition  was  contributed 
from  time  to  time,  but  for  the  most  part  the  songs  were 
adaptations  of  tunes  in  vogue  among  the  Hardshell 
Baptists  in  Tennessee  and  at  the  Methodist  Camp- 
meetings  in  Kentucky,  with  a  few  backwoods  melodies, 
and  now  and  then  a  reveller  straying  from  the  opera  or 
the  concert  room. 

Foster's  songs  are  rollicking  jingles,  infectious  tunes 
with  insistent  rhythm  provided  by  a  banjo  accompani- 
ment, the  words  a  farrago  of  nonsense: 


FIRST  SONGS  /  47 


I  come  from  Alabama, 

Wid  my  banjo  on  my  knee, 
I'm  gwine  to  Louisiana 

My  true  love  for  to  see; 
It  rained  all  night  the  day  I  left, 

The  weather  it  was  dry, 
The  sun  so  hot  I  froze  to  death, 

Susanna,  don't  you  cry! 

I  jumped  aboard  the  telegraph, 

And  trabbeled  down  de  ribber, 
De  'lectric  fluid  magnified 

And  killed  five  hundred  nigger; 
De  bullgine  bust,  de  horse  run  off, 

I  really  thought  I'd  die, 
I  shut  my  eyes  to  hold  my  breath, 

Susanna,  don't  you  cry! 

11  'Way  Down  South"  is  a  little  better  than  this,  and 
the  music  contains  several  rhythmic  elements  of  the 
characteristic  syncopation  later  known  as  "rag-time." 
The  chorus  of  each  of  the  songs  was  sung  by  a  male 
quartet  or  chorus. 

"Uncle  Ned,"  on  the  other  hand,  belongs  to  a  different 
world.  Here  the  negro  ceases  to  be  a  caricature  and 
becomes  a  human  being: 

There  was  an  old  nigger,  his  name  was  Uncle  Ned, 

He's  dead  long  ago,  long  ago; 
He  had  no  wool  on  top  of  his  head, 

De  place  whar  de  wool  ought  to  grow; 
Den  lay  down  de  shubble  and  de  hoe, 

Hang  up  de  fiddle  and  de  bow, 
No  more  hard  work  for  poor  old  Ned, 

He's  gone  whar  de  good  niggers  go. 

"Uncle  Ned"  became  enormously  popular  at  once, 
and  has  always  been  one  of  the  best-known  of  Foster's 
melodies.  It  is  the  first  of  the  pathetic  negro  songs  that 
set  Foster  apart  from  his  contemporaries  and  gave  him 
a  place  in  musical  history.  In  this  type  of  song,  universal 
in  the  appeal  of  its  nai've  pathos,  he  has  never  had  an 
equal. 

Two  other  songs  were  published  in  1847.  They  are 
not  particularly  important  except  that  they  show  the 
measure  of  Foster's  ability  in  more  serious  vein  than  the 
minstrel  songs.  "What  Must  a  Fairy's  Dream  Be" 


48 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

was  "Written  and  composed  for  and  respectfully  dedi- 
cated to  Miss  Mary  H.  Irwin."  The  original  edition  of 
the  other  song  of  this  year,  "Where  Is  Thy  Spirit, 
Mary?"  has  been  lost.  A  second  edition  was  copyrighted 
in  1895  by  F.  G.  Vandergrift  and  published  by  Geo. 
Mercer,  Jr.,  of  Pittsburgh,  as  "Inscribed  to  the  memory 
of  Mary  Keller."  Miss  Keller  was  the  young  lady  to 
whom  he  also  dedicated  the  song,  "There's  a  Good  Time 
Coming,"  published  in  1846.  Musically  speaking, 
"Where  Is  Thy  Spirit,  Mary?"  is  the  most  ambitious 
song  that  he  had  yet  attempted.  The  verse-form  is 
rather  unusual,  each  verse  beginning  with  an  eight-bar 
phrase  which  is  almost  a  recitative,  before  the  commence- 
ment of  the  real  melody.  In  both  of  these  songs  there 
is  the  first  appearance  in  his  music  of  the  modulation  to 
the  relative  minor  of  the  original  key.  He  seems  to 
have  been  groping  toward  a  larger  harmonic  vocabulary. 

Another  song  of  the  same  type  was  published  by  Peters 
in  the  following  year  (1848),  "Stay,  Summer  Breath." 
It  was  "written  and  composed  for  and  inscribed  to  Miss 
Sophie  Marshall."  Miss  Marshall  is  described  by  Mor- 
rison Foster  as  "an  old  friend  of  the  family.  She  pos- 
sessed a  beautiful  soprano  voice,  and  sang  with  much 
sweetness  and  taste,  and  was  a  favorite  with  Stephen 
whilst  he  resided  in  Cincinnati." 

There  was  also  a  "quickstep  as  performed  by  the 
military  bands,"  entitled  "Santa  Anna's  Retreat  from 
Buena  Vista,"  which  was  published  for  the  piano  as  ar- 
ranged by  the  composer. 

Two  other  letters  of  this  period  throw  some  light  on 
Stephen  Foster's  sudden  emergence  into  fame  and  his 
attitude  toward  his  music.  One  is  to  his  brother  Mor- 
rison, written  from  Cincinnati  April  27th,  1849: 

Dear  Mit, 

You  must  be  tired  waiting  for  an  answer  to  the  many  favors  which 
I  have  received  from  you,  not  the  least  welcome  of  which  was  that 
introducing  to  my  acquaintance  Signor  Biscaccianti  and  his  accom- 
plished lady.  I  called  on  Madame  Biscaccianti  and  was  as  much 


FIRST  SONGS  49 


delighted  by  her  conversation  and  agreeable  manner  as  I  was  sub- 
sequently by  her  singing  at  her  concerts.  She  spoke  very  affection- 
ately of  you  and  the  ladies  who  accompanied  you  on  the  occasion  of 
your  visit  to  her,  as  if  you  had  been  her  own  brother  as  well  as 
mine.  Her  concerts  were  very  well  attended,  indeed  such  was  her 
encouragement,  notwithstanding  the  formidable  opposition  carried 
on  at  the  theatre  by  Mr.  Macready,  that  she  expressed  an  intention 
to  return  after  she  should  have  made  a  visit  to  Louisville,  where  she 
is  now  singing. 

In  writing  to  Gil  Smith,  please  say  that  I  am  very  much  grieved 
at  having  been  the  cause  of  so  much  trouble  and  humiliation  to 
him  on  account  of  a  miserable  song,  and  tell  him  that  if  he  has  not 
already  burned  the  copyright,  as  I  certainly  should  have  done,  he 
may  give  it  to  Messrs.  Firth  &  Pond  any  time  that  he  may  be  in  the 
neighborhood  of  No.  1  Franklin  Square.  If  they  will  give  him  $10, 
$5,  or  even  $1  for  it,  let  him  make  a  donation  of  the  amount  to  the 
Orphan  Asylum,  or  any  other  charitable  or  praiseworthy  institution. 
Messrs.  Firth  &  Pond  have  written  me  for  the  song. 

I  did  not  read  the  articles  which  I  marked  in  "The  Atlas,"  but 
supposed  them  to  be  written  in  the  usual  style  of  the  editor,  whom 
I  consider  the  most  powerful  and  talented  writer  in  the  west,  there- 
fore you  must  not  blame  me  if  he  treated  of  Kamchatka  or  Nootka 
Sound,  I  merely  desired  that  you  should  have  a  touch  of  his  quality. 

Tell  Ma  she  need  not  trouble  herself  about  the  health  of  Cincin- 
nati, as  our  weather  is  very  healthy,  the  cholera  not  having  made 
its  appearance.  There  is  something  about  letter-writing  which  so 
runs  away  with  my  hand  that  my  ideas  can  find  no  interpreter.  I 
think  I  must  study  phonography,  which  will  probably  remove  this 
blind  brindle  orthography  and  give  my  brain  a  lighter  harness  to 
work  in. 

With  love  to  all, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

STEPHEN. 

On  the  margin  of  this  letter  is  the  following  comment, 
written  many  years  later,  by  Morrison  Foster: 

He  was  then  about  22  years  old,  and  was  engaged  in  business  in 
the  office  of  my  late  brother,  Dunning  M.  Foster,  who  with  the  late 
Archibald  Irwin,  Jr.,  composed  the  firm  of  Irwin  &  Foster.  Who  the 
editor  of  "The  Atlas"  was  at  that  time,  you  will  perhaps  remember. 
Stephen's  estimate  of  his  ability  may  have  been  too  high,  but  I 
know  you  will  consider  the  fact  that  my  brother  was  quite  young 
then.  The  song  Stephen  refers  to  had  been  sent  to  Gilead  A.  Smith, 
a  connection  of  ours  in  New  York,  to  be  by  him  delivered  to  a  person 
who  had  requested  Stephen  to  send  him  a  song  for  public  perform- 
ances. Mr.  Smith  after  calling  several  times,  failed  to  find  the  person 
and  so  informed  my  brother.  Hence  the  latter's  invitation.  I  well 
remember  that  this  very  song  was  "Nelly  Was  a  Lady,"  one  of 
Stephen's  best  compositions.  It  afterwards  sold  in  immense  num- 
bers and  to  a  profit  of  several  thousand  dollars. 

The  significant  features  of  the  letter  are  the  indications 
that  Stephen  still  seems  to  have  had  no  conception  of  the 
commercial  value  of  his  "miserable  songs,"  and  that  his 


50 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

fame  had  reached  in  a  few  months  such  proportions  as  to 
attract  the  attention  and  interest  of  a  New  York  music- 
publishing  house,  one  of  the  largest  and  foremost  of  the 
time. 

This  relation  between  Stephen  Foster  and  the  house 
of  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.,  was  to  grow  and  to  endure  through 
many  years.  Of  the  very  considerable  amount  of  corre- 
spondence which  passed  between  them,  only  two  or 
three  letters  have  survived.  One  of  the  earliest  was 
written  by  the  publishers  to  Foster  on  September  12th 
of  this  year  (1849): 

No.  1  Franklin  Square,  New  York. 
S.  C.  Foster,  Esq., 
Dear  Sir: 

Your  favor  of  8th  instant  is  received  and  we  hasten  to  reply. 

We  will  accept  the  proposition  therein  made,  viz.,  to  allow  you 
two  cents  upon  every  copy  of  your  future  publications  issued  by  our 
house,  after  the  expenses  of  publication  are  paid,  and  of  course  it  is 
always  our  interest  to  push  them  as  widely  as  possible.  From  your 
acquaintance  with  the  proprietors  or  managers  of  different  bands 
of  "Minstrels,"  and  from  your  known  reputation,  you  can  undoubt- 
edly arrange  with  them  to  sing  them  and  thus  introduce  them  to  the 
public  in  that  way,  but  in  order  to  secure  the  copyright  exclusively 
for  our  house,  it  is  safe  to  hand  such  persons  printed  copies  only,  of 
the  pieces,  for  if  manuscript  copies  are  issued,  particularly  by  the 
author,  the  market  will  be  flooded  with  spurious  issues  in  a  short 
time. 

It  is  also  advisable  to  compose  only  such  pieces  as  are  likely 
both  in  the  sentiment  and  melody  to  take  the  public  taste.  Numer- 
ous instances  can  be  cited  of  composers  whose  reputation  has  greatly 
depreciated  from  the  fact  of  their  music  becoming  too  popular  and 
as  a  natural  consequence  they  write  too  much  and  too  fast  and  in  a 
short  time  others  supercede  them. 

As  soon  as  "Brother  Gum"  makes  his  appearance  he  shall  be 
joined  to  pretty  "Nelly"  and  your  interest  in  the  two  favorites  duly 
forwarded  to  your  address,  say  50  copies  of  each. 

We  remain,  in  the  hope  of  hearing  from  you  soon, 
Very  truly  yours, 

FIRTH,  POND  &  Co. 

The  "Pretty  Nelly"  referred  to  in  this  letter  is  the 
song  "Nelly  Was  a  Lady"  mentioned  by  Morrison  Foster 
as  having  been  sent  to  New  York  by  Stephen.  It  even- 
tually found  its  way  to  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.,  and  was 
published  by  them  in  the  latter  part  of  1849,  or  early 
in  1850,  together  with  three  other  songs,  under  the 


FIRST  SONGS  51 


heading  "Foster's  Ethiopian  Melodies."  The  reference 
in  the  letter  to  Foster's  "known  reputation"  and  his 
"acquaintance  with  the  proprietors  or  managers  of  the 
different  bands  of  'Minstrels'  "  is  another  evidence  of 
the  extraordinary  vogue  already  acquired  by  these  min- 
strel songs,  although  none  of  them  had  been  in  print 
more  than  a  year.  Testimony  to  the  same  effect  is  the 
fact  that  each  of  the  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  songs  contained 
on  the  title-page  the  line,  "By  the  author  of  'Uncle  Ned,1 
'0  Susanna,'  etc."  The  advice  with  regard  to  the  com- 
poser's giving  manuscript  copies  of  his  songs  to  various 
singers  is  significant,  as  is  also  the  warning  against 
yielding  to  the  injurious  effects  of  sudden  and  too  great 
popularity. 

The  four  songs  published  by  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  as 
"Foster's  Ethiopian  Melodies"  are  "Nelly  Was  a  Lady," 
"My  Brudder  Gum,"  "Dolcy  Jones"  and  "Nelly  Ely." 
They  are  among  the  best  and  most  characteristic  of 
Foster's  songs.  "Brudder  Gum"  is  one  of  the  nonsense 
songs: 

White  folks,  I'll  sing  for  you, 

Nuffin'  else  to  do, 
Spend  my  time  a-pickin'  on  de  banjo, 

Hey,  Brudder  Gum! 

My  brudder  Gum, 

My  brudder  Gum  so  fair, 
All  de  yaller  galls  runnin'  round, 

Try  to  get  a  lock  of  his  hair. 

It  would  not  have  taken  any  great  skill  to  make 
"Brudder  Gum"  "go"  with  any  audience  of  that  time. 
The  happy-go-lucky  absurdity  of  the  negro  minstrel, 
with  his  blackened  face  and  wide-mouthed  grin,  never 
found  a  better  vehicle  than  "Brudder  Gum,"  with  the 
crackling  staccato  of  its  banjo  accompaniment  and  the 
rhythmic  quirk  afforded  by  the  unduly  long  third  line 
and  the  abrupt  stop,  "Hey,  Brudder  Gum." 

"Dolcy  Jones"  contains  a  clever  twist  in  the  stutter 
at  the  end  of  each  verse,  "Da-da-d'-d'-Dolcy  Jones." 


52 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

"Nelly  Bly"  is  so  typically  a  folk-song  that  it  seems 
difficult  to  believe  that  it  was  ever  "written"  by  any- 
body. It  is  one  of  those  simple  little  tunes  that  seem  to 
go  on  their  care-free  way  as  inevitably  as  sunlight  or  the 
laughter  of  little  children.  It  is  one  of  the  few  happy 
songs  ever  written  by  Stephen  Foster.  Aside  from  the 
jingling  nonsense  of  the  minstrel  songs,  he  turned  in- 
stinctively to  sentimental  melancholy,  the  yearnings  of 
homesickness  and  sad  memories  of  the  past.  "Nelly 
Bly"  is  a  song  of  contentment  and  plenty,  more  truly 
characteristic  of  the  negro  than  "Brudder  Gum"  or 
"O  Susanna." 

Nelly  Bly!    Nelly  Bly! 

Bring  de  broom  along, 
We'll  sweep  de  kitchen  clean,  my  dear, 

And  hab  a  little  song; 

Poke  de  wood,  my  lady  lub, 

And  make  de  fire  burn, 
And  while  I  take  de  banjo  down, 

Just  gib  de  mush  a  turn! 

Truly  it  is  a  "dulcem  melody." 

"Nelly  Was  a  Lady"  is  one  of  Foster's  best  melodies; 
of  the  utmost  simplicity,  it  speaks  with  the  authentic 
accents  of  true  and  sincere  emotion.  No  amount  of  elab- 
oration or  sophistication  could  add  to  the  elegiac  tender- 
ness of  this  plaintive  little  tune,  which  evokes  a  mood 
of  gentle  sorrow  as  unerringly  to-day  as  it  did  in  1849. 

Down  on  de  Mississippi  floating, 

Long  time  I  trabble  on  de  way, 
All  night  de  cotton-wood  a-toting, 

Sing  for  my  true-lub  all  de  day. 

Nelly  was  a  lady, 

Last  night  she  died, 
Toll  de  bell  for  lubly  Nell, 

My  dark  Virginny  bride. 

Now,  I'm  unhappy  and  I'm  weeping, 
Can't  tote  de  cotton- wood  no  more; 

Last  night,  while  Nelly  was  a-sleeping, 
Death  came  a-knocking  at  de  door. 


FIRST  SONGS  53 


Close  by  de  margin  ob  de  water, 
Whar  de  lone  weeping  willow  grows, 

Dar  lib'd  Virginny's  lubly  daughter, 
Dar  she  in  death  may  find  repose. 

Down  in  de  meadow  'mong  de  clober, 

Walk  wid  my  Nelly  by  my  side; 
Now  all  dem  happy  days  am  ober, 

Farewell,  my  dark  Virginny  bride. 

This  is  not  the  negro  of  "Jump  Jim  Crow"  and  "Zip 
Coon,"  but  of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin." 


V 
AMBITION 

Stephen  Foster  was  now  well  launched  on  his  career 
as  a  song-writer.  At  twenty-three,  success  had  come  to 
him  suddenly,  unexpectedly  and  to  an  amazing  degree. 
His  "strange  talent  for  musick"  had  set  a  nation  singing, 
and  his  melodies  were  soon  to  travel  overseas  into  every 
corner  of  the  world.  He  had  discovered  within  himself 
a  vein  of  pure  gold  and  he  set  himself  to  develop  the 
riches  of  this  unsuspected  and  miraculous  gift  of  God. 
He  left  his  brother's  office  in  Cincinnati  and  returned 
to  Pittsburgh  intending  to  devote  himself  to  study  and 
composition.  His  prospects  were  of  the  brightest.  His 
first  attempts  at  composition  had  struck  the  chord  of 
popular  favor  and,  in  discovering  him,  the  public  had 
helped  him  discover  himself.  I  He  had  not  had  to  learn 
his  art  by  struggle  and  self-denial,  nor  to  adapt  his 
wares  to  his  market  by  patience  and  labor.  He  voiced 
instinctively  and  spontaneously  the  heart  of  the  people 
and  the  spirit  of  the  times.^ 

He  returned  to  his  father's  home  in  Alleghany  City 
and  fitted  up  a  back-room  at  the  top  of  the  house  as  a 
"study."  His  experience  in  Cincinnati  had  taught  him 
that  he  had  no  taste  or  aptitude  for  a  business  life,  and 
he  never  attempted  it  again. 

His  brother  Morrison  says  that  he  now  "devoted  him- 
self to  the  study  of  music  as  a  science."  Just  how  much 
"studying"  he  did  is  doubtful.  Unfortunately,  there  is 
no  evidence  in  his  music  itself  to  indicate  that  he  "studied 
deeply  and  burned  much  midnight  oil  over  the  works  of 
the  masters,  especially  Mozart,  Beethoven  and  Weber," 
nor  that  "he  struggled  for  years  and  sounded  the  depths 
of  musical  science."  That  he  was  acquainted  with  the 
music  of  these  masters  is  no  doubt  true,  but  the  state- 
ment that  he  studied  them  carefully  or  derived  much 

54 


AMBITION  55 


benefit  from  them  may  be  attributed  to  the  loving  ad- 
miration of  his  brother. 

In  company  with  Charles  Shiras,  publisher  of  "The 
Albatross,"  he  studied  the  French  and  German  lan- 
guages, for  which  he  is  reputed  to  have  displayed  re- 
markable aptitude.  Another  accomplishment  of  this 
period  was  painting  in  water-colors.  As  none  of  his 
pictures  can  be  found  at  the  present  time  (although 
Morrison  Foster  says  they  are  "yet  preserved  with 
pride"),  it  is  impossible  to  judge  of  the  extent  of  his 
talent  in  that  direction. 

The  year  following  his  return  from  Cincinnati  (1850) 
saw  the  publication  of  fifteen  compositions,  fourteen 
songs  and  one  piano  piece,  the  largest  output  of  any  year 
of  his  life  except  1862  and  1863.  Of  the  fourteen  songs, 
six  were  negro  songs  obviously  put  forth  to  capture  the 
favor  of  the  "minstrel"  public.  Of  these,  "Gwine  to 
Run  All  Night,"  commonly  known  as  "Camptown 
Races,"  achieved  the  greatest  popularity  and  is  the  only 
one  remembered  to-day.  The  survival  of  this  song  is 
rather  difficult  to  explain,  although  its  success  with  the 
audiences  of  the  time  in  which  it  was  written  is  easily 
understood.  Like  many  of  these  minstrel  songs,  its 
principal  element  of  composition  is  insistent  rhythm. 
The  "tune"  is  of  the  most  elementary  description,  but 
the  listener  is  carried  along  irresistibly  by  the  strong 
rhythmic  pulse,  with  the  recurring  chorus,  "Doo-dah- 
doo-dah  day."  It  celebrates  the  disreputable  negro  of 
the  "Jim  Crow"  type,  and  the  words  are  for  the  most 
part  nonsensical.  The  same  description  applies  to 
"  'Way  Down  in  Ca-i-ro,"  "Oh  Lemuel,  Go  Down  to 
the  Cotton  Field"  and  "Angelina  Baker."  The  other 
two  negro  songs  of  this  year,  "Dolly  Day"  and  "Melinda 
May,"  are  love-songs. 

With  the  exception  of  "  'Way  Down  in  Ca-i-ro,"  all 
of  these  songs  were  sung  by  Christy's  Minstrels,  Camp- 
bell's Minstrels,  The  New  Orleans  Serenaders,  and 


56 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

other  minstrel  companies.  Several  of  them  were  dedi- 
cated to  special  singers  who  introduced  them  to  the 
public. 

The  other  songs  of  this  year  were  sentimental  ef- 
fusions of  no  great  importance,  except  in  so  far  as  they 
indicate  that  Foster  had  ambitions  aside  from  those  of 
the  burnt-cork  stage.  With  the  exception  of  "The  Spirit 
of  My  Song,"  the  words  of  all  the  songs  are  by  the  com- 
poser. They  drip  with  melancholy  sentiment,  but  in 
that  respect  they  are  not  different  from  other  poetic 
ebullitions  of  the  day.  The  lyricists  of  the  '40's  and  '50's 
concerned  themselves  chiefly  with  fair  maidens  who  met 
untimely  deaths,  voices  from  by-gone  days,  and  flowers 
that  faded  all  too  soon.  Foster's  Muse  was  no  more 
tearful  than  any  of  her  contemporaries.  "Lily  Ray" 
is  one  of  the  first  of  that  numerous  company  of  lovely 
departed  maidens  who  occupy  so  prominent  a  place  in 
Stephen  Foster's  writings: 

Grief,  to  thy  memory, 

Tuneth  a  lay, 
Lovely,  departed  one, 

Sweet  Lily  Ray. 

Akin  to  Omar's 

Alas,  that  spring  should  vanish  with  the  rose, 
That  youth's  sweet-scented  manuscript  should  close. 

is  this: 

Ah,  may  the  red  rose  live  alway, 

To  smile  upon  earth  and  sky, 
Why  should  the  beautiful  ever  weep, 

Why  should  the  beautiful  die? 

Lulled  by  the  dirge  in  the  cypress  bough, 

That  tells  of  departed  flowers, 
Ah !  that  the  butterfly's  gilded  wing 

Fluttered  in  evergreen  bowers! 

Sad  is  my  heart  for  the  blighted  plants, 

Its  pleasures  are  aye  as  brief, 
They  bloom  at  the  young  year's  joyful  call 

And  fade  at  the  autumn  leaf! 

Another  of  these  1850  songs  is 


AMBITION  57 


Give  the  stranger  happy  cheer, 

When  o'er  his  cheek  the  tear-drops  start; 

The  balm  that  flows  from  one  kind  word, 
May  heal  the  wound  in  a  breaking  heart. 

"The  Voice  of  By-gone  Days,"  published  in  this  year, 
is  a  vocal  duet,  dedicated  to  Robert  P.  Nevin,  father  of 
the  composer,  Ethelbert  Nevin,  to  whose  reminiscences 
of  Stephen  Foster  reference  has  been  made.  Musically 
speaking  it  is  a  feeble  effort,  the  "duet"  being  constructed 
by  doubling  the  melody  at  the  interval  of  a  third 
below. 

Four  of  these  1850  songs  were  published  by  Firth, 
Pond  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  the  others  by  F.  D.  Ben  teen, 
of  Baltimore.  With  both  of  these  publishers  he  had 
signed  contracts  on  a  royalty  basis. 

This  year,  his  first  as  a  professional  composer,  was 
important  in  his  life  for  another  reason,  for  it  was  the 
date  of  his  marriage  to  Miss  Jane  Denny  McDowell, 
the  daughter  of  Dr.  Andrew  N.  McDowell,  one  of  Pitts- 
burgh's leading  physicians.  Of  this  event,  so  important 
and  significant,  little  can  be  said  except  that  it  took  place 
July  22nd,  1850.  Of  the  love-affair  which  preceded  it 
or  the  circumstances  surrounding  it,  there  remains  not 
a  trace.  The  fair  flowers  of  many  a  forgotten  spring- 
time, of  which  he  sang  so  feelingly,  have  not  vanished 
more  completely  than  the  memory  of  his  own 
romance. 

The  young  lady  was  a  singer,  as  she  is  mentioned  as 
the  contralto  of  a  "Stephen  Foster  Quartet,"  the  soprano 
being  Susan  Pentland,  to  whom  Stephen  had  dedicated 
"Open  Thy  Lattice,  Love"  years  before.  Miss  McDowell 
was  probably  one  of  the  young  ladies  to  whom  the  young 
composer  turned  for  inspiration  and  encouragement, 
although  among  his  numerous  dedications  none  is  to 
her. 

The  marriage  seems  to  have  been  an  unhappy  one. 
It  would  be  idle,  and  even  impertinent,  to  speculate  as 
to  the  causes  of  the  unhappiness,  except  in  so  far  as  it 


58 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

might  shed  some  light  upon  Foster's  subsequent  career 
and  his  failure  to  develop  as  a  composer.  Certain  it  is 
that  he  failed  to  realize  the  ambitions  upon  which  he 
had  embarked  so  hopefully,  and  from  this  time  he  seems 
to  have  drifted  slowly  toward  the  inevitable  final  trag- 
edy. /  Whether  this  was  due  to  disappointment  in  his 
marriage  or  to  innate  characteristics,  no  one  can  now  say. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  his  intemperate  habits  caused 
his  wife  to  leave  him,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  this 
weakness,  which  clouded  the  last  years  of  his  life,  had 
fastened  itself  upon  him  to  any  great  extent  at  the  time 
of  his  marriage.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  probable  that 
it  had  not.  So  far  as  his  marriage  is  concerned,  it  might 
have  been  either  a  cause  or  an  effect.  It  may  be  that 
his  wife  had  little  sympathy  with  the  impractical  dreamer 
she  had  married.  In  this  respect  Foster's  story  is  like 
that  of  many  other  men  of  great  talenti  The  statement, 
sometimes  made,  that  he  had  married  "beneath  him," 
is  hardly  borne  out  by  the  facts,  for  Miss  McDowell  was 
the  daughter  of  a  prominent  physician,  whose  standing 
in  the  city  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  he  was 
called  upon  to  attend  Charles  Dickens  when  that  dis- 
tinguished visitor  was  taken  ill  in  Pittsburgh  during  his 
first  American  tour. 

Her  great-grandfather  was  President  of  the  College 
at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  in  1799,  and  for  many  years 
the  family  preserved  a  letter  written  to  him  by  George 
Washington  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  : 

Consequent  of  a  letter  I  have  received  from  Mr.  Stuart,  I  have 
been  induced  to  confide  to  your  care  the  young  gentleman  who  will 
deliver  this  letter  (George  Washington  Parke  Custis).  You  will 
find  him  intelligent,  truthful  and  moral,  and  I  have  reason  to  hope 
he  will  live  to  justify  the  best  expectations  of  his  friends,  and  to  be 
useful  in  the  councils  of  his  country. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  the  unhappiness  of  the  mar- 
riage has  been  exaggerated.  Foster's  whole  life-story  is 
clouded  by  a  mass  of  gossipy,  unreliable  reminiscences, 
and  his  defects  as  well  as  his  virtues  have  been  exploited 


AMBITION  59 


to  make  good  "copy."  As  late  as  1860  there  are  refer- 
ences in  his  letters  to  "Jane"  and  "Marian"  (his  daughter) 
and  although  his  wife  was  not  with  him  in  New  York 
at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1864,  she  came  on  immediately 
on  receipt  of  the  news  and  accompanied  the  body  home. 
It  is  a  subject  that  we  would  gladly  pass  over  in  silence, 
were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  a  true  picture  of  Foster's  life 
would  be  impossible  without  it.  So  much  has  already 
been  written  and  said  about  his  marriage  and  his  in- 
temperance, that  it  would  seem  to  be  advisable  to  exam- 
ine both  stories  in  the  light  of  whatever  authentic  his- 
torical evidence  there  may  be. 

The  only  suggestion  in  any  of  the  family  letters  or 
papers  that  Stephen's  marriage  was  not  happy  is  con- 
tained in  a  letter  written  in  1853  to  Morrison  Foster  by 
his  sister  Henrietta,  who  was  living  in  Youngstown, 
Ohio.  Several  lines  have  been  carefully  scratched  out, 
evidently  in  deference  to  Stephen's  memory,  although 
no  good  purpose  would  seem  to  be  served  at  this  time 
by  such  deletion. 

Youngstown,  June  21st,  1853. 
My  beloved  Brother, 

.  .  .  .  How  sorry  I  feel  for  dear  Stephy,  though  when  I  read 
your  letter  I  was  not  at  all  surprised  at  the  news  it  contained  in 
regard  to  him  and — (name  scratched  out).  Last  winter  I  felt  con- 
vinced— (three  lines  scratched  out,  ending  in  the  word  "mistake"). 
Though  I  never  wrote  a  word  of  the  kind  to  Stephy,  for  I  thought 
he  had  trouble  enough  already.  Tell  him  to  come  out  and  stay  a 
while  with  me ;  we  have  a  delightful  house,  well  shaded  by  trees  and 
I  know  it  must  be  pleasanter  here  than  in  Pittsburgh  this  hot 
weather.  You  did  not  tell  me  what  he  had  done  with  little  Marian. 
I  feel  quite  concerned  about  her;  dear  little  lamb,  who  is  she  with? 
Give  much  love  to  Stephy  for  me  and  tell  him  to  feel  assured  that 
he  has  the  prayers  and  sincere  sympathy  of  his  sister  Etty.  Dear 
boy,  may  God  lead  him  in  the  ways  of  peace  and  fill  his  heart  with 
that  love  which  alone  is  satisfying  and  which  never  disappoints,  a 
love  that  will  take  such  complete  possession  of  the  soul,  as  to  make 
all  other  loves  but  matters  of  small  importance. 

During  the  first  year  of  his  married  life,  Stephen 
worked  industriously  at  his  new  vocation  of  song- writing. 
Fourteen  songs  were  published  in  the  year  1851;  of  ten 
the  composer  wrote  the  words  as  well  as  the  music.  If 


60 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

most  of  them  are  commonplace,  at  least  one  of  them  is 
Stephen  Foster  at  his  best.  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home" 
is  Foster's  chief  claim  to  remembrance.  Aside  from  one 
or  two  national  airs,  born  of  great  historical  crises,  such 
as  the  "Marseillaise,"  this  is  probably  the  most  widely 
known  and  loved  song  ever  written.  It  has  been  trans- 
lated into  every  European  language  and  into  many 
Asian  and  African  tongues.  It  has  been  sung  by  mil- 
lions the  world  over  and  has  long  since  passed  out  of 
the  realm  of  written  song  to  be  incorporated  into  the 
body  of  folk-music  passed  orally  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, breathing  the  very  soul  of  the  people.  There  are 
many  legends  with  regard  to  the  enormous  sales  of  this 
song.  Even  if  the  figures  were  available,  which  they  are 
not,  they  would  but  faintly  indicate  its  widespread  pop- 
ularity, for  it  is  a  song  which  travels  not  by  the  printed 
page,  but  by  oral  tradition.  It  was  published  by  Firth, 
Pond  &  Co.,  and  the  sales  within  a  few  years  tan  up  into 
hundreds  of  thousands,  while  Foster  received  in  royalties 
an  amount  variously  estimated  from  $15,000  upwards. 

The  magic  of  this  wonderful  melody  defies  analysis. 
In  some  subtle  and  instinctive  way  it  expresses  the  home- 
sick yearning  over  the  past  and  the  far-away  which  is 
the  common  emotional  heritage  of  the  whole  human  race. 
If  art  is  an  attempt  of  the  human  spirit  to  express  itself 
in  its  relation  to  life,  and  if  simplicity  of  means,  as  well 
as  lucidity,  are  to  be  accounted  artistic  virtues,  then 
"The  Old  Folks  at  Home"  must  remain  for  all  time  one 
of  the  greatest  achievements  of  musical  art. 

The  first  version  of  this  song,  in  Stephen  Foster's  own 
handwriting,  is  to  be  found  in  a  manuscript  book  which 
he  used  for  many  years,  now  in  the  possession  of  his 
granddaughter,  Mrs.  A.  D.  Rose,  custodian  of  the  Foster 
Memorial  Homestead  in  Pittsburgh.  The  first  draft  of 
the  song  was  entitled,  "  'Way  down  upon  de  old  planta- 
tion," and  sings  of  the  Pedee  River  instead  of  the 
Swanee : 


1  1  <*AA 


^ 

Oja       i 

<^<M^         -«^K      ^vr^vf 

'i-***^*1 

' 


«<> 


[>< 


/Ww|, 


Original  Version  of  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home" 
(Photograph  from  the  Manuscript  Book) 


AMBITION  61 


'Way  down  upon  de  Pedee  ribber, 

Far,  far  away, 
Dere's  wha  my  heart  is  turning  ebber, 

Dere's  wha  my  brudders  play. 

That  he  was  in  doubt  as  to  the  suitability  of  the  word 
"Pedee"  is  indicated  by  the  double  line  drawn  under  it. 
Immediately  under  this  tentative  first  verse,  on  the  same 
page,  are  the  words  exactly  as  published;  with  "Pedee" 
crossed  out  and  "Swanee"  written  above  it: 

'Way  down  upon  the  Swanee  Ribber, 

Far,  far  away, 
Dere's  wha  my  heart  is  turning  ebber, 

Dere's  wha  de  old  folks  stay; 
All  up  and  down  de  whole  creation, 

Sadly  I  roam, 
Still  longing  for  de  old  plantation, 

And  for  de  old  folks  at  home. 

Morrison  Foster  tells  how  his  brother  came  into  his 
office  on  the  banks  of  the  Monongahela  River  one  day 
and  asked  him  to  suggest  the  two-syllable  name  of  a 
Southern  river  for  use  in  a  song.  Morrison  suggested 
"Yazoo,"  and  when  that  was  rejected,  took  down  an 
atlas  and  turned  to  a  map  of  the  United  States.  A 
brief  search  located  the  name  "Swanee,"  belonging  to 
a  little  river  in  Florida  emptying  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

"That's  it,  that's  it  exactly"  exclaimed  Stephen;  and 
thus  was  immortalized  an  inconspicuous  stream  which 
Stephen  Foster  had  never  seen,  nor  even  heard  of,  until 
after  he  had  written  the  song  which  was  destined  to 
make  its  name  a  symbol  of  home-longing  the  world  over. 

One  little  hut  among  de  bushes 

One  dat  I  love, 
Still  sadly  to  my  memory  rushes, 

No  matter  where  I  rove. 
When  will  I  see  de  bees  a-humming 

All  'round  de  comb? 
When  will  I  hear  de  banjo  tumming 

Down  in  my  good  old  home? 

The  manuscript  book  referred  to  above  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  of  the  memorabilia  of  Stephen  Foster. 
Covering  a  period  of  ten  years,  he  used  it  to  preserve  his 
ideas  for  songs  and  to  work  out  these  ideas  into  their 


62 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

final  form.  The  book  is  dated  "Alleghany  City,  June 
26th,  1851."  The  first  pages  are  taken  up  with  the  words 
of  the  song  "Laura  Lee,"  which  was  published  later  in 
the  same  year  by  F.  D.  Ben  teen,  of  Baltimore./  The 
pages  of  this  book  bear  eloquent  testimony  that  the 
childlike  simplicity  of  Foster's  verses  was  not  the  out- 
come of  accident  or  the  unconscious  outpouring  of  an 
untutored  brain,  but_the  result  of  deliberate  and  pains- 
taking effort/  He  had  the  true  artist's  feeling  for  the  per- 
fect phrase,  and  he  sought  it  patiently  and  persistently. 
For  instance,  the  sketches  for  "Laura  Lee"  show  how 
he  worked  over  the  phrase  "desert  isle,"  which  occurs  in 
the  second  verse  of  this  song.  The  first  version  is : 

Bright  were  a  desert  isle, 

Far  in  the  sea, 
Warmed  by  thy  sunny  smile, 

Sweet  Laura  Lee. 

A  few  lines  below  this,  the  phrase  occurs  again : 

Earth  seems  a  desert  isle, 
Far  in  the  sea. 

On  the  next  page: 

How  like  a  desert  isle 

Earth  seems  to  me, 
Robbed  of  thy  sunny  smile, 

Sweet  Laura  Lee. 

This  is  the  form  finally  adopted,  although  his  experi- 
ments with  this  and  other  phrases  continue  for  several 
pages. 

The  pages  of  this  book  contain  various  notations  in 
Foster's  writing,  such  as  "Rented  office  July  28th, '51," 
"Sent  Laura  Lee  July  19th,"  and  the  address  of  "Cramer, 
Beale  &  Co.,  Music  Publishers,  210  Regent  St.,  London." 
If  he  ever  had  any  correspondence  with  these  publishers, 
it  evidently  came  to  naught,  as  there  is  no  record  of 
their  having  published  any  of  his  songs.  An  English 
edition  of  forty  of  his  songs  was  published  many  years 
later  by  C.  Sheard,  London,  during  the  vogue  of  the 
Christy  Minstrels  in  England  and  after  the  composer's 
death. 


AMBITION  63 


Stephen  Foster's  relations  with  E.  P.  Christy,  the 
minstrel,  are  disclosed  in  the  following  letters,  written 
at  this  time.  These  two  letters  were  recently  sold  at 
auction  in  New  York  City  and  are  among  the  few  Foster 
autographs  that  have  found  their  way  into  public 

auction: 

Alleghany,  June  12,  1851. 
Mr.  E.  P.  Christy, 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  just  received  a  letter  from  Messrs.  Firth,  Pond  &  Co., 
stating  that  they  have  copyrighted  a  new  song  of  mine,  "Oh  Boys, 
Carry  Me  Along,"  but  will  not  be  able  to  issue  it  yet,  owing  to  other 
engagements.  This  will  give  me  time  to  send  you  the  manuscript 
and  allow  you  the  privilege  of  singing  it  at  least  two  weeks  and  prob- 
ably a  month  before  it  is  issued  (unless  they  catch  it  up  from  you). 
If  you  will  send  me  $10.00  immediately,  I  pledge  myself  as  a  gentle- 
man of  the  old  school  to  give  you  the  manuscript.  I  have  written 
Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  not  to  publish  it  until  they  hear  again  from  me. 
This  song  is  certain  to  become  popular  as  I  have  taken  great  pains 
with  it.  If  you  accept  my  proposition,  I  will  make  it  a  point  to 
notify  you  hereafter  whenever  I  have  a  new  song  and  send  the  manu- 
script to  you  on  the  same  terms,  reserving  to  myself  in  all  cases  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  publishing.  Thus  it  will  become  notorious 
that  your  band  brings  out  the  new  songs.  You  can  state  in  the 
papers  that  the  song  was  composed  expressly  for  you.  I  make  this 
proposition  to  you  because  I  am  sure  of  the  song's  popularity. 
Very  respectfully, 

STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER. 

Christy  accepted  the  proposition,  as  the  second  letter 

shows'  June  20th,  1851. 

Your  favor  of  the  12th  instant  enclosing  $10  for  the  first  privilege 
of  singing  "Oh  Boys,  Carry  Me  Along"  is  received.  Accept  my 
thanks.  Herewith  I  send  you  the  manuscript  according  to  agree- 
ment. I  am  not  certain  that  you  use  a  piano  in  your  band,  but  I 
have  arranged  an  accompaniment  for  that  instrument  at  a  venture. 
If  you  have  a  tenor  voice  in  the  company  that  can  sing  up  to  G  with 
ease  (which  is  probable)  it  would  be  better  to  sing  the  song  in  the 
key  of  G.  Thus  you  will  not  carry  the  bass  voice  quite  so  low.  I 
hope  you  will  preserve  the  harmony  in  the  chorus  just  as  I  have 
written  it  and  practise  the  song  well  before  you  bring  it  out.  It  is 
especially  necessary  that  the  person  who  sings  the  verses  should 
know  all  the  words  perfectly,  as  the  least  hesitation  in  the  singing 
will  damn  any  song, — but  this  of  course  you  know  as  well  as  myself. 
Remember  it  should  be  sung  in  a  pathetic,  not  a  comic,  style. 
You  will  find  the  last  three  verses  on  another  page  of  this  letter. 
I  regret  that  it  is  too  late  to  have  the  name  of  your  band  on  the 
title-page,  but  I  will  endeavor  to  place  it  along  on  future  songs  and 
will  cheerfully  do  anything  else  in  my  humble  way  to  advance 
your  interest. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER. 


64 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

P.  S.    I  have  not  yet  done  anything  at  the  "night  funeral,"  etc., 
but  will  probably  make  something  of  it  one  of  these  days. 

The  "night  funeral"  of  the  postscript  is  evidently 
a  reference  to  an  idea  for  a  song,  but  nothing  seems  to 
have  come  of  it,  as  there  is  no  song  containing  such  an 
idea.  The  song  "Oh  Boys,  Carry  Me  'Long,"  was 
published  about  a  month  after  the  date  of  the  second 
letter,  by  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.,  as  "A  Plantation  Melody, 
Written  and  Composed  by  Stephen  C.  Foster." 

Oh,  boys,  carry  me  'long, 
Der's  no  more  trouble  for  me, 

I'se  gwine  to  roam 

In  a  happy  home 
Where  all  de  niggers  am  free! 

E.  P.  Christy  was  probably  the  most  successful  of  all 
the  black-face  minstrels  of  that  time.  He  claimed  to  be 
the  originator  of  the  "minstrel  show."  The  first  minstrel 
troupes  consisted  of  quartets,  each  man,  in  addition  to 
singing,  being  able  to  play  an  instrument,  usually  either 
the  banjo,  the  "fiddle,"  the  "bones"  or  the  tambourine. 
One  of  the  first  of  these  quartets  was  organized  by  "Dan" 
Emmett,  the  author  and  composer  of  "Dixie." 

In  1842  Christy  organized  a  large  troupe  in  Buffalo, 
introducing  the  form  of  entertainment  afterwards  asso- 
ciated with  the  name  "minstrel  show."  In  addition  to 
its  size  this  company  was  an  innovation  in  the  fact  that 
they  sat  in  a  semicircle  on  the  stage,  with  "interlocutor" 
and  "end-men."  Their  ballads  were  sung  by  a  solo  voice 
with  the  entire  company  joining  in  the  chorus.  Christy 
was  also  the  first  to  introduce  dialogue  and  "jokes" 
between  the  various  members  of  the  company,  as  well 
as  injecting  "varieties"  into  the  second  part  of  his  enter- 
tainment. 

The  Buffalo  company  was  disbanded,  and  Christy's 
real  career  did  not  begin  until  1846.  Before  his  death  he 
achieved  both  fame  and  fortune.  "Christy  Minstrels" 
was  a  name  to  conjure  with  in  those  days,  and  he  had  a 


AMBITION  65 


host  of  imitators.  He  enjoyed  an  enormous  vogue  in 
England  during  the  1850's  and  Ws,  his  achievements 
including  a  "command  performance"  before  Queen  Vic- 
toria. Even  the  great  Mr.  Gladstone  was  sometimes  to 
be  found  in  Christy's  audience. 

One  of  the  tributes  to  the  negro  minstrel  of  the 
Christy  type  is  from  the  pen  of  Thackeray: 

I  heard  a  humorous  balladist  not  long  since,  a  minstrel  who  per- 
formed a  negro  ballad  that,  I  confess,  moistened  these  spectacles  in 
a  most  unexpected  manner.  I  have  gazed  at  thousands  of  tragedy 
queens  dying  on  the  stage  and  expiring  to  appropriate  blank  verse, 
and  I  never  wanted  to  wipe  them;  they  have  looked  up,  be  it  said, 
at  many  scores  of  clergymen  without  being  dimmed;  and  behold,  a 
vagabond  with  corked  face  and  a  banjo  sings  a  little  song,  strikes  a 
wild  note  and  sets  the  heart  thrilling  with  happy  pity. 

Bayard  Taylor,  in  "India,  China  and  Japan,"  pub- 
lished in  1853,  describes  a  wandering  Hindoo  minstrel 
singing  "O  Susanna"  and  other  Ethiopian  melodies  in 
Delhi. 

The  singing  of  Foster's  songs  by  the  Christy  Minstrels 
undoubtedly  had  much  to  do  with  their  widespread  popu- 
larity. A  book  of  the  words  of  songs  sung  by  Christy's 
Minstrels,  published  in  1851  for  sale  at  the  performances, 
contains  the  words  of  forty-six  songs,  of  which  fourteen 
are  by  Stephen  Foster. 

The  song  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home"  was  published  by 
Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  in  the  fall  of  1851  as  "Ethiopian  Mel- 
ody as  sung  by  Christy's  Minstrels.  Written  and  com- 
posed by  E.  P.  Christy."  Foster  sold  to  Christy  the 
privilege  of  singing  several  of  his  songs  before  publica- 
tion, one  of  them  being  "Oh  Boys,  Carry  Me  'Long," 
mentioned  in  the  letters  quoted  above.  In  the  case  of 
"The  Old  Folks  at  Home,"  he  sold  not  only  the  right  to 
sing  the  song  in  advance  of  publication,  but  the  privilege 
of  publishing  Christy's  name  on  the  title-page  as  author 
and  composer.  Morrison  Foster  states  that  Christy  paid 
$500  for  this  privilege,  but  there  is  evidence  that  his 
memory  was  at  fault  with  regard  to  the  amount.  This 


66 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

evidence  is  a  statement  in  Stephen  Foster's  own  hand- 
writing of  the  amounts  received  on  thirty-six  of  his  com- 
positions, including  many  of  the  most  popular  ones. 
This  statement,  which  is  now  in  the  Congressional 
Library  at  Washington,  is  dated  January  27th,  1857, 
and  contains  the  following  foot-note: 

In  the  amounts  received  I  have  included  $15  on  the  two  songs 
"Old  Folks  at  Home"  and  "Farewell,  Lilly,"  from  E.  P.  Christy, 
also  $10  on  each  of  the  songs,  "Old  Dog  Tray,"  "Oh  Boys,"  [sic] 
"Massa's  in  de  Cold,  Cold  Ground,"  and  "Ellen  Bayne." 

As  the  amount  received  for  "Oh  Boys,  Carry  Me 
'Long"  is  correct,  it  seems  hardly  probable  that  Stephen 
would  have  been  so  far  wrong  concerning  the  sum  he 
received  for  selling  the  authorship  of  'The  Old  Folks 
at  Home."  At  any  rate,  whatever  Christy  may  have 
paid  for  the  privilege  of  being  known  even  for  a  short 
time  as  the  composer  of  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home,"  it 
was  an  honor  which  did  not  long  remain  his,  as  later 
editions  of  the  song  contained  the  name  of  the  real  com- 
poser, and  there  has  never  been  any  doubt  as  to  its 
true  authorship. 

The  other  songs  of  this  year  (1851)  are  fair  examples 
of  the  sentimental  song  of  the  period,  but  are  not  of 
great  interest  to-day.  One  of  them,  "Wilt  Thou  Be 
Gone,  Love,"  is  in  the  form  of  a  duet,  the  words  being 
paraphrased  from  Shakespeare's  "Romeo  and  Juliet": 

Wilt  them  be  gone,  love,  gone,  love,  from  me? 
Stay,  'tis  the  nightingale  that  sings  in  yonder  tree, 
Deem  not  'tis  the  lark,  love,  day  is  not  yet  near, 
Believe  me,  'tis  the  nightingale  whose  song  hath 
pierced  thine  ear. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  elaborate  of  Foster's  composi- 
tions, and  was  no  doubt  warbled  tenderly  by  ante- 
bellum Romeos  and  Juliets. 

Another  song  copyrighted  in  this  year  is  "I  Would  Not 
Die  in  Summer  Time,"  "an  answer  to  the  new  and 
beautiful  song,  'I  Would  Not  Die  in  Spring  Time', 


AMBITION  67 


written  and  composed  by  Stephen  C.  Foster."  The 
Springtime  song  is  not  recorded  in  the  Copyright  Office 
in  Washington,  but  is  given  by  Morrison  Foster  in  his 
collected  songs,  and  was  presumably  published  in  this 
year  or  just  previous. 

The  industry  with  which  Stephen  Foster  set  out  on  his 
career  as  a  professional  song-writer  does  not  seem  to  have 
endured  for  long.  After  the  second  year,  the  output  of 
songs  grows  meagre.  Only  three  songs  were  published 
in  the  next  year  (1852),  although  one  of  them  is  among 
his  best,  "Massa's  in  de  Cold,  Cold  Ground."  Like 
many  of  the  other  negro  songs,  it  was  sung  by  Christy's 
Minstrels,  being  among  those  mentioned  by  Foster  as 
having  been  sung  by  Christy  in  advance  of  publication. 
This  poignant  song  of  sorrow  is  one  of  the  loveliest  of 
Foster's  melodies: 

Round  de  meadows  am  a-ringing 

De  darkey's  mournful  song, 
While  de  mocking-bird  am  singing, 

Happy  as  de  day  am  long, 

Where  de  ivy  am  a-creeping, 

O'er  de  grassy  mound, 
Dare  old  massa  am  a-sleeping, 

Sleeping  in  de  cold,  cold  ground. 

Down  in  de  corn-field, 

Hear  dat  mournful  sound, 
All  de  darkeys  am  a-weeping, 

Massa's  in  de  cold,  cold  ground. 

With  one  exception,  all  of  the  songs  composed  from 
1852  to  1860,  a  period  of  nine  years,  were  published  by 
Firth,  Pond  &  Co.,  of  New  York. 

Five  new  songs  appeared  in  1853,  as  well  as  a  piano 
piece,  "Holiday  Schottische,"  and  "The  Old  Folks 
Quadrille,"  "Introducing  'Old  Folks  at  Home,'  'Oh 
Boys,  Carry  Me  'Long,'  'Nelly  Ely,'  'Farewell,  My  Lilly 
Dear,'  and  'Cane  Brake  Jig.'  "  W.  C.  Peters  also  pub- 
lished a  version  of  "Uncle  Ned"  with  "sacred"  [?]  words: 


68 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Then  away  with  earth's  cares  and  its  woe, 
With  your  joys  and  your  sorrows  below, 
For  no  more  tears  from  your  eyes  will  be  shed, 
When  you've  gone  where  the  sanctified  go! 

Of  the  five  new  songs  of  this  year,  the  two  which 
gained  the  greatest  popularity  were  sung  by  the  Christy 
Minstrels,  "My  Old  Kentucky  Home"  and  "Old  Dog 
Tray."  The  latter  song  achieved  a  tremendous  vogue 
immediately,  which  endured  until  long  after  the  Civil 
War,  but  it  does  not  exhibit  the  signs  of  permanence  of 
"My  Old  Kentucky  Home"  and  "The  Old  Folks  at 
Home."  It  is  said  that  125,000  copies  of  "Old  Dog 
Tray"  were  sold  within  eighteen  months  of  publication, 
but  the  actual  figures  are  not  available.  Of  the  origin 
of  this  song,  Morrison  Foster  says: 

An  old  friend  of  ours,  Col.  Matthew  Stewart,  gave  Stephen  a  hand- 
some setter  dog,  which  for  a  long  time  was  his  constant  companion. 
We  lived  upon  the  East  Common  of  Alleghany,  a  wide  open  space, 
now  improved  into  a  beautiful  park.  Stephen  often  watched  this 
dog  with  much  pleasure,  playing  with  the  children  on  the  Common. 
When  he  wrote  of  "Old  Dog  Tray,"  he  put  into  verse  and  song  the 
sentiments  elicited  by  remembrances  of  this  faithful  dog. 

He  was  easily  disturbed  from  sleep  at  night  and  used  every  pre- 
caution to  be  as  quiet  as  possible.  A  strange  dog  got  into  one  of 
the  back  buildings  one  night  and  howled  at  intervals.  Stephen 
finally  could  endure  it  no  longer,  and  sallying  forth  partly  dressed 
with  a  poker  in  his  hand,  pounded  the  poor  dog  away  from  the  neigh- 
borhood. The  family  had  a  good  laugh  at  the  author  of  "Old  Dog 
Tray"  the  next  day. 

There1  is  a  tradition  that  "My  Old  Kentucky  Home" 
was  written  at  the  home  of  a  relative  of  the  Foster  fam- 
ily* Judge  John  Rowan  of  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  who 
was  also  U.  S.  Senator.  This  story  cannot  be  verified. 
It  was  certainly  not  necessary  for  Stephen  Foster  to  be 
actually  in  Kentucky  at  the  time,  any  more  than  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  be  familiar  with  Florida  in  mention- 
ing the  Swanee  River.  The  important  thing  is  that  the 
song  rings  true  and  expresses  an  emotion  deep-rooted  in 
the  human  soul.  Its  only  rival  in  the  affectionate  esteem 
of  the  multitudes  is  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home,"  which  it 
closely  resembles  in  spirit.  Both  songs  sing  of  loneliness 


AMBITION  69 


and  longing,  of  yearning  over  the  happiness  of  days 
gone  by ; 

They  hunt  no  more  for  the  possum  and  the  coon, 

On  the  meadow,  the  hill  and  the  shore, 
They  sing  no  more  by  the  glimmer  of  the  moon, 

On  the  bench  by  the  old  cabin  door. 
The  day  goes  by,  like  a  shadow  o'er  the  heart, 

With  sorrow  where  all  was  delight, 
The  time  has  to  come  when  the  darkies  have  to  part, 

Then  my  old  Kentucky  home,  good  night! 

The  head  must  bow  and  the  back  will  have  to  bend, 

Wherever  the  darkey  must  go, 
A  few  more  days  and  the  trouble  all  will  end 

In  the  field  where  the  sugar-canes  grow. 
A  few  more  days  for  to  tote  the  weary  load, 

No  matter,  'twill  never  be  light, 
A  few  more  days  till  we  totter  on  the  road, 

Then  my  old  Kentucky  home,  good  night! 

Weep  no  more,  my  lady, 

Oh,  weep  no  more  to-day, 
We  will  sing  one  song  for  the  old  Kentucky  home, 

For  the  old  Kentucky  home,  far  away  1 

It  will  be  observed  that  Foster  has  forsaken  the  crude 
negro  dialect  of  the  early  songs.  Although  this  is  a  negro 
song,  and  the  words  a^re  supposed  to  issue  from  the  lips 
of  a  negro,  the  language  is  the  white  man's  language. 
It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  from  this  time  on,  Stephen 
Foster  never  again  made  use  of  the  negro  dialect,  with 
the  exception  of  the  songs,  "Glendy  Burke,"  written  in 
jl860,  and  "Don't  Bet  Your  Money  on  the  Shanghai," 
n  1861.  "Old  Black  Joe,"  one  of  the  most  successful 
of  the  negro  songs,  like  "My  Old  Kentucky  Home,"  is 
in  the  language  of  the  white  man.  It  should  also  be 
observed  that  the  word  "nigger"  has  been  supplanted 
by  "darkey."  This  change  had  taken  place  gradually, 
and  for  a  time  he  used  both  words,  but  now  he  had  defi- 
nitely given  up  "nigger"  and  never  used  it  again. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
Foster  family  were  all  ardent  Democrats  and  heartily 
opposed  to  the  Abolition  movement. 


VI 
DRIFTING 

The  records  of  Stephen  Foster's  life  during  these  im- 
portant years  are  scanty.  Of  the  few  letters  surviving 
from  this  period,  one  of  the  most  illuminating  is  the 
following: 

Pittsburgh,  May  25,  1852. 
E.  P.  Christy,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir: 

As  I  once  intimated  to  you,  I  had  the  intention  of  omitting  my 
name  on  my  Ethiopian  songs,  owing  to  the  prejudice  against  them 
by  some,  which  might  injure  my  reputation  as  a  writer  of  another 
style  of  music,  but  I  find  that  by  my  efforts  I  have  done  a  great 
deal  to  build  up  a  taste  for  the  Ethiopian  songs  among  refined  people 
by  making  the  words  suitable  to  their  taste,  instead  of  the  trashy  and 
really  offensive  words  which  belong  to  some  songs  of  that  order. 
Therefore  I  have  concluded  to  reinstate  my  name  on  my  songs  and 
to  pursue  the  Ethiopian  business  without  fear  or  shame  and  lend  all 
my  energies  to  making  the  business  live,  at  the  same  time  that  I  will 
wish  to  establish  my  name  as  the  best  Ethiopian  song-writer.  But 
I  am  not  encouraged  in  undertaking  this  so  long  as  "The  Old  Folks 
at  Home"  stares  me  in  the  face  with  another's  name  on  it.  As  it 
was  at  my  own  solicitation  that  you  allowed  your  name  to  be  placed 
on  the  song,  I  hope  that  the  above  reasons  will  be  sufficient  explana- 
tion for  my  desire  to  place  my  own  name  on  it  as  author  and  com- 
poser, while  at  the  same  time  I  wish  to  leave  the  name  of  your  band 
on  the  title  page.  This  is  a  little  matter  of  pride  in  myself  which  it 
will  certainly  be  to  your  interest  to  encourage.  On  the  receipt  of 
your  free  consent  to  this  proposition,  I  will,  if  you  wish,  willingly 
refund  you  the  money  which  you  paid  me  on  that  song,  though  it 
may  have  been  sent  me  for  other  considerations  than  the  one  in 
question,  and  I  promise  in  addition  to  write  you  an  opening  chorus 
in  my  best  style,  free  of  charge,  and  in  any  other  way  in  my  power 
to  advance  your  interests  hereafter.  I  find  I  cannot  write  at  all 
unless  I  write  for  public  approbation  and  get  credit  for  what  I  write. 
As  we  may  probably  have  a  good  deal  of  business  with  each  other  in 
our  lives,  it  is  best  to  proceed  on  a  sure  basis  of  confidence  and 
good  understanding,  therefore  I  hope  you  will  appreciate  an  author's 
feelings  in  the  case  and  deal  with  me  with  your  usual  fairness. 
Please  answer  immediately. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER. 

This  letter  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  Foster's  attitude 
toward  his  music,  and  on  the  status  of  the  "Ethiopian" 
song.  It  also  proves  that  Christy  was  named  as  the 
author  and  composer  of  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home"  on 

70 


DRIFTING  71 


Foster's  own  suggestion,  and  it  intimates  that  Christy 
paid  for  the  use  of  the  song,  as  in  the  case  of  ''Oh  Boys" 
and  the  other  songs  mentioned,  and  not  for  the  credit 
of  the  authorship.  ("I  will  willingly  refund  you  the 
money  which  you  paid  me  on  that  song,  though  it  may 
have  been  sent  me  for  other  considerations  than  the  one 
in  question.") 

Evidently,  Christy  gave  his  consent  to  have  his  name 
removed  from  the  song,  as  Foster's  name  appears  on  all 
later  editions,  but  he  apparently  did  not  accept  Foster's 
generous  offer  to  refund  the  money  paid  for  the  song,  as 
it  is  mentioned  in  the  royalty  list  drawn  up  by  Foster 
in  1857,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.  It 
hardly  seems  likely  that  Christy  would  have  paid  as 
much  as  $500  for  having  his  name  on  the  song  as  author 
when  the  plan  originated  with  Foster.  If  the  amount 
had  been  as  large  as  this,  the  refunding  of  it  would  have 
probably  received  more  than  a  mere  passing  reference 
in  the  letter  just  quoted. 

The  intention  expressed  in  this  letter  to  lend  all  his 
energies  to  "the  Ethiopian  business"  and  establish  his 
name  as  "the  best  Ethiopian  song- writer"  was  not  car- 
ried out.  In  fact,  at  the  time  the  words  were  written, 
Foster's  production  of  "Ethiopian"  songs  was  practi- 
cally at  an  end. 

An  excursion  to  New  Orleans,  in  1852,  is  thus  related 
by  Morrison  Foster: 

In  February,  1852,  our  brother,  Dunning  McNair  Foster,  came 
to  Pittsburgh  with  his  steamboat,  the  "James  Millinger,"  to  load 
a  cargo  for  New  Orleans.  Stephen  and  his  wife,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Andrew  L.  Robinson  (Mrs.  Robinson  was  Susan  Pentland),  Miss 
Jessie  Lightner,  Mrs.  William  Robinson  and  her  daughter,  Miss 
Mary  Ann,  embarked  with  him  on  a  pleasure  trip  to  New  Orleans. 
Miss  Louisa  Walker  and  her  two  brothers  joined  them  in  Cincinnati. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  musical  ability  in  the  party,  and  they  made 
the  trip  pleasant,  not  only  for  themselves,  but  for  the  other  passen- 
gers as  well. 

On  the  return  trip,  brother  Dunning  found  it  would  be  more 
profitable  to  reship  his  freight  and  passengers  at  Cincinnati  and 
return  from  there  to  New  Orleans.  They  were  transferred  to  Cap- 
tain Charles  W.  Batchelor's  magnificent  new  boat,  the  peerless 


72 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

"Alleghany,"  and  arrived  in  Pittsburgh  on  her.  I  had  met  them  at 
Cincinnati  and  we  were  so  well  treated  on  the  "Alleghany"  that  every- 
body on  the  boat  joined  in  a  complimentary  card  of  thanks  to 
Captain  Batchelor.  In  those  days  the  captains  and  other  officers 
of  the  steamboats  on  the  Western  rivers  regarded  the  passengers 
as  their  guests  and  treated  them  accordingly.  These  officers  neces- 
sarily had  to  be  gentlemen,  or  otherwise  they  could  not  continue 
long  in  the  trade. 

Wonderful  men  were  these  old-time  river  commanders,  combina- 
tions of  shrewd  business  management,  daring  seamanship,  physical 
courage  and  manners  fit  for  the  most  refined  society.  '  They  are 
nearly  all  gone  now.  Before  long  the  landing  bell  will  sound  and 
the  gang-plank  be  run  out  for  the  last  of  them  to  take  his  place 
"among  the  silent  sleepers." 

As  far  as  is  known,  with  the  possible  exception  of  a 
visit  at  the  home  of  Judge  Rowan,  in  Bardstown,  Ken- 
tucky, this  trip  to  New  Orleans  is  the  only  time  that 
Stephen  Foster,  "the  great  Southern  melodist,"  was  ever 
in  the  South.  The  statement,  frequently  made,  that  on 
this  voyage  he  observed  many  incidents  of  Southern  life, 
which  he  afterwards  utilized  as  points  for  poetical  similes 
in  his  songs,  is  obviously  untrue,  because  (as  we  have  just 
pointed  out)  at  this  time  he  practically  ceased  to  write 
about  the  South  or  the  Southern  negro. 

I  have  been  unable  to  ascertain  exactly  the  date  of 
the  birth  of  Stephen  Foster's  only  child,  his  daughter 
Marian.  Robert  P.  Nevin  says  that  she  was  twelve 
years  old  at  the  time  of  her  father's  death,  which  would 
indicate  that  she  was  born  in  the  year  of  this  trip,  1852. 

The  date  of  his  first  journey  to  New  York  is  said  to 
be  "shortly  after  his  marriage."  If,  as  seems  probable, 
he  made  only  one  trip  during  these  years  to  New  York, 
it  must  have  been  in  1853,  as  there  is  a  letter  to  his 
brother  Morrison  written  from  New  York  in  the  summer 
of  that  year.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  letter  from  his 
sister  Henrietta,  making  apparent  reference  to  the  un- 
happiness  of  his  marriage  and  suggesting  that  he  visit 
her  in  Youngstown,  Ohio,  was  dated  June  21st,  1853, 
a  little  over  two  weeks  before  the  date  of  the  New  York 
letter.  He  may  have  gone  to  New  York  instead  of  to 
Youngstown. 


5     C 


C-      CD 

cn- 


DRIFTING  73 


Evidently  he  was  still  in  Pittsburgh  at  the  time  his 
sister's  letter  was  written,  as  she  refers,  in  her  invitation, 
to  her  house  "well  shaded  by  trees,"  as  being  "pleasanter 
than  Pittsburgh  this  hot  weather." 

Morrison  Foster  says: 

He  had  received  very  flattering  offers  from  his  publishers  in 
New  York,  and  strong  inducements  to  make  that  city  his  home.  He 
removed  there  and  had  every  favorable  prospect  that  a  young  man 
could  hope  for.  He  was  paid  a  certain  sum  for  every  song  he  might 
choose  to  write,  besides  a  royalty  on  the  copies  printed. 

He  went  to  house-keeping  and  liked  New  York  very  much.  But 
after  a  year  the  old  fondness  for  home  and  mother  began  to  be  too 
strong  for  him  to  overcome.  One  day  he  suddenly  proposed  to  his 
wife  that  they  return  to  Pittsburgh.  He  brought  a  dealer  to  the 
house,  sold  out  everything  in  the  way  of  furniture,  and  within 
twenty-four  hours  was  on  the  road  to  the  home  of  his  father  in 
Alleghany.  He  arrived  late  at  night  and  was  not  expected.  When 
he  rang  the  bell,  his  mother  was  awakened  and  knew  his  footsteps 
on  the  porch.  She  arose  immediately  and"  went  down  herself  to 
let  him  in.  As  she  passed  through  the  hall  she  called  out,  "Is  that 
my  dear  son  come  back  again?"  Her  voice  so  affected  him  that 
when  she  opened  the  door  she  found  him  sitting  on  the  little  porch- 
bench  weeping  like  a  child. 

The  date,  circumstances  and  length  of  the  sojourn  in 
New  York  are  shrouded  in  mystery. 

Here  is  the  only  available  bit  of  documentary  evidence 
bearing  on  the  subject: 

New  York,  July  8,  1853. 
My  dear  brother,  [Morrison] 

Your  letter  of  the  6th  is  received.  The  vest  arrived  safely,  I  am 
glad  you  sent  it.  I  wish  you  would  send  me  Messrs.  Firth,  Pond 
&  Co.'s  note  for  $125,  which  I  gave  you.  In  my  anxiety  to  pay 
you  I  rather  stinted  myself,  expecting  to  be  able  to  live  modestly 
at  home,  but  circumstances  have  increased  my  expenses,  as  you 
know,  since  that  time.  They  have  just  rendered  my  account,  which 
is  over  $500,  and  that  for  the  dullest  season  in  the  year.  So  you  see 
my  prospects  are  good,  but  I  dare  not  claim  any  money  until  these 
notes  are  paid.  The  full  amount  of  my  account  current  is  passed 
to  my  credit  and  balance  due  to  be  claimed  after  that  time.  If  you 
will  let  me  have  the  note,  I  will  take  the  first  occasion  to  pay  you. 
I  am  not  living  expensively  and  I  hope  it  will  not  be  long  before  I 
can  pay  you  back  the  amount.  I  made  it  payable  to  your  order,  so 
if  you  send  it,  don't  forget  to  endorse  it. 

I  am  getting  along  first  rate,  with  plenty  of  work  to  keep  me  busy. 
Hippodrome  no  humbug,  races  there  very  exciting.  Taylor's  Saloon 
great.  Sontag  in  opera  with  Salvi  &  Co.  next  week,  Crystal  Palace 
in  a  week.  Fourth  of  July  here  good  for  nervous  sick  people  I  dare 
say.  Cleared  myself  out  of  town,  went  over  to  Staten  Island  and 


74 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

saw  Vin  Smith;  Gillead  and  wife  at  Niagara,  home  next  week.     I 
am  about  bringing  out  a  couple  of  good  songs. 
Love  to  all, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

STEPHEN. 

Nothing  in  this  letter  indicates  how  long  he  had  been 
in  New  York  and  there  is  no  mention  of  his  wife  and 
child.  The  sentence  about  expecting  to  "live  modestly 
at  home,  but  circumstances  have  increased  my  expenses, 
as  you  know,  since  that  time,"  suggests  two  possibilities: 
he  may  have  left  his  wife  at  home  in  Pittsburgh  and  gone 
to  New  York  alone,  or  he  and  his  wife  may  have  sep- 
arated in  New  York,  thus  making  it  necessary  for  him 
to  maintain  two  establishments.  Until  some  further 
testimony  is  forthcoming,  this  part  of  his  life  must  re- 
main a  mystery.  His  widow  told  a  reporter  of  "The 
Pittsburgh  Leader"  more  than  twenty  years  later  that 
he  wrote  the  song  "Willie,  We  Have  Missed  You"  (pub- 
lished in  1854)  while  they  were  "boarding  on  Sixth 
Avenue,  New  York." 

Among  the  letters  from  other  members  of  the  family 
during  these  years  there  are  only  two  references  to 
Stephen  aside  from  the  letter  from  Henrietta,  already 
quoted.  One  of  these  is  in  a  letter  from  Dunning  to 
William,  dated  "Steamer  'Norma,'  Mississippi  River 
near  Vicksburg,  March  3,  1854." 

.  .  .  .  Have  you  heard  anything  from  Stephen  lately?  It 
is  a  subject  of  much  anxiety  to  me;  notwithstanding  his  foolish  and 
unaccountable  course,  I  hope  he  will  continue  to  make  a  comfortable 
living  for  himself. 

Did  the  "foolish  and  unaccountable  course"  consist  of 
persistence  in  writing  songs  for  a  living? 

The  other  reference  to  Stephen  is  an  affectionate  one 
from  his  mother  to  Morrison,  written  from  Philadelphia, 
where  she  was  visiting  relatives,  on  October  19th,  1854. 
After  several  pages  of  family  news  and  social  events  in 
Philadelphia,  she  says:  "Tell  Stephen  his  letter  was  a 
great  relief  to  me  to  know  that  all  is  well  at  home." — 


DRIFTING  75 


Later:  "Give  my  love  to  dear  Stephen  and  tell  him  I 
wrote  him  a  letter  after  I  came  here  and  directed  it  to 
New  York." 

We  might  conclude  from  these  letters  that  Stephen 
had  left  his  wife  in  Pittsburgh  early  in  the  summer  of 
1853  and  had  gone  to  New  York  alone,  and  that  his  re- 
turn to  Pittsburgh,  after  a  year's  residence  in  New  York, 
took  place  during  his  mother's  absence;  but  this  would 
contradict  Morrison's  story  of  the  sudden  disposal  of 
his  household  effects  and  of  his  mother's  recognizing  his 
step  on  the  porch.  These  details  are  not  of  vital  im- 
portance, but  the  incident  proves  how  difficult  it  is  to 
reconstruct  a  clear  and  consistent  outline  of  Stephen 
Foster's  life. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  of  Stephen  Foster's 
attitude  toward  musical  activities  other  than  writing 
sentimental  ballads  and  songs  for  negro  minstrels,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  on  the  subject.  There  was  consider- 
able musical  life  in  New  York  during  the  years  he  spent 
in  that  city,  but  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  he 
came  in  touch  with  any  of  it  aside  from  that  of  the 
"music  halls." 

The  Philharmonic  Orchestra  had  been  organized  in 
1842,  and  was  giving  concerts  during  the  year  1854  when 
Foster  was  in  New  York.  There  was  also  a  choral 
organization,  "The  New  York  Harmonic  Society," 
founded  in  1850,  which  gave  ambitious  performances  of 
Elijah  and  other  oratorios.  In  these  and  other  ways 
Foster  had  an  opportunity  to  widen  his  musical  horizon 
and  to  deepen  his  musical  knowledge.  It  might  be  imag- 
ined that  these  experiences  would  have  given  him  a  new 
conception  of  the  meaning  and  mission  of  music,  but 
there  is  no  indication  that  anything  of  the  kind  took 
place.  There  were  plenty  of  musicians  in  New  York, 
men  of  European  training  and  culture,  an  acquaintance 
with  whom  would  have  been  of  inestimable  value  to 
Stephen  Foster,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have  sought 


76 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

them  out,  nor  they  him.  As  far  as  achievement  is  con- 
cerned, his  life  was  over.  He  had  sung  his  song.  During 
the  remaining  years  of  his  life,  he  wrote  many  songs,  par- 
ticularly during  the  last  two  years,  which  were  numer- 
ically the  most  productive  of  all,  but  he  was  content  to 
repeat  himself.  He  ventured  into  no  new  fields.  He 
did  not  seek  a  deeper,  more  subtle  expression  or  a  larger 
musical  vocabulary.  Whatever  the  experiences  of  his 
later  life,  they  are  not  in  any  way  mirrored  in  his  music, 
which  remains  at  the  end  as  simple  and  ingenuous  as  it 
was  in  the  beginning. 

A  search  through  old  scrap-books  and  the  files  of  Pitts- 
burgh newspapers  of  the  1850's  fails  to  reveal  any  men- 
tion of  his  name,  but  gives  an  idea  of  the  stage  of  cultural 
development  of  the  Western  city  at  this  period.  Jenny 
Lind  gave  a  concert  in  Masonic  Hall,  Pittsburgh,  in 
1850,  an  occasion  which  was  marred  by  the  presence  of 
a  crowd  of  rowdies  who  shouted,  whistled,  and  even 
indulged  in  throwing  rocks.  One  rock  penetrated  into 
the  dressing-room  of  the  Swedish  nightingale,  who  was 
so  shocked  that  she  refused  to  repeat  her  concert  in 
Pittsburgh. 

However,  she  returned  the  following  year,  and  sang 
again  on  November  13th,  1851.  On  the  latter  occasion 
the  crowd  about  the  landing  dock  of  the  steamboat  was 
so  dense  that  it  was  feared  she  could  not  land.  In  the 
course  of  time,  the  familiar  figure  of  P.  T.  Barnum  ap- 
peared with  a  veiled  lady  on  his  arm.  A  way  was  made 
through  the  crowd  and  they  were  driven  off  to  the 
Monongahela  House.  Then  the  real  Jenny  Lind  slipped 
quietly  off  the  boat  and  also  went  to  the  Monongahela 
House. 

After  her  concert,  which  passed  off  without  any  exhibi- 
tion of  rowdyism,  a  statement  to  the  contrary  being 
indignantly  denied  in  the  papers  the  following  day,  the 
crowd  in  the  hall  and  surrounding  streets  was  so  dense 
that  she  remained  in  the  hall  until  midnight;  then  she 


DRIFTING  77 


was  spirited  out  the  back  door  and  through  the  fence, 
from  which  a  number  of  rails  had  been  removed ;  thence 
through  various  back  alleys  to  the  Monongahela  House. 

About  this  time  a  new  Jardine  organ  of  twenty-six 
stops  was  installed  in  Trinity  Church. 

Henry  Kleber,  a  professional  musician  of  Pittsburgh, 
who  has  already  been  mentioned  as  a  possible  teacher 
of  Stephen  Foster  in  his  boyhood,  was  the  hero  of  a 
cause  c&llbre  in  this  same  year.  He  was  fined  $100  and 
costs  for  attacking  with  a  cow-hide  one  Augustus  Schaad, 
who  had  criticised  him  in  a  newspaper  in  connection  with 
the  concert  of  a  Mme.  Bornstein.  Kleber  had  appeared 
as  an  "assisting  artist"  at  the  concert, and  Schaad  com- 
plained of  his  "presumptious  appearance"  and  his  "self- 
admiration."  The  two  met  on  the  street  shortly  after 
this,  and  Schaad  fled  from  the  altercation  which  ensued, 
locking  himself  up  in  a  near-by  office.  When  he  ven- 
tured forth  again,  the  battle  was  renewed  by  Kleber's 
brother.  The  affair  occupied  columns  in  the  various 
papers  of  the  city  for  many  days.  The  rival  editors 
hurled  denunciations  at  each  other,  after  the  style  of 
the  times,  and  indignant  partisans  of  both  sides  wrote 
letters  to  the  editors. 

At  Masonic  Hall,  in  1852,  a  concert  was  given  by 
William  Vincent  Wallace,  "Composer  to  the  Imperial 
and  Royal  Theatres  of  London  and  Vienna."  He  played 
the  violin  and  also  appeared  in  piano  duets  with  his  wife, 
"Fraulein  Helen  Stopel."  The  favorite  form  of  com- 
position in  those  days  seems  to  have  been  the  "Grand 
Variation."  Among  the  melodies  selected  by  Wallace  for 
elaboration  at  his  Pittsburgh  concert  was  "O  Susanna." 

A  "Mendelssohn  Quintette  Club"  was  organized  about 
1850,  and  gave  concerts  for  many  seasons,  their  pro- 
grams consisting  of  the  works  of  Mozart,  Schubert, 
Cherubini,  Beethoven,  and  other  masters,  indicating  a 
high  degree  of  musical  development  on  the  part  of  both 
performers  and  audience. 


78 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Ole  Bull  gave  a  concert  in  Pittsburgh  in  1855,  and  with 
him  appeared  Adelina  Patti,  as  a  "Child  Prodigy"  of 
eight.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Pittsburgh  critics,  she  was 
too  sophisticated  for  a  child. 

The  following  editorial  is  taken  from  the  Pittsburgh 
"Evening  Chronicle"  of  March  llth,  1853: 

A  hobby  of  society  at  the  present  day  is  to  be  music-mad,  and 
the  adulation  and  toddy  ism  lavished  upon  every  Piano  Forte  player 
of  any  talent  is  enough  to  disgust  all  sensible  people  with  the  instru- 
ment forever.  From  the  language  of  the  musical  critiques  of  the 
Eastern  press,  one  would  suppose  that  there  was  nothing  else  worth 
living  for  in  this  life  but  music,  and  Piano  Forte  playing  especially, 
and  the  musical  world,  following  the  key-note,  look  for  the  advent 
of  each  fresher  greater  Signor  Pound-the-keys  with  a  devotion  and 
religious  constancy  unparalleled.  He  makes  his  advent  and  the 
whole  town  talks.  Pound-the-keys  young  ladies  practice  barications 
(?)  and  musical  young  gentlemen  walk,  talk  and  sit  Pound-the-keys 
fashion,  and  Pound-the-keys  himself,  well  fed,  well  dressed  and  well 
puffed,  for  a  few  nights  extorts  from  a  Piano  such  extraordinary 
combinations  of  sounds,  to  the  delight  of  the  young  ladies  and 
gentlemen  with  exquisitely  cultivated  musical  ears  and  to  the  misery 
of  all  who  have  not,  who  may  have  been  deluded  into  attending. 
And  Signor  Pound-the-keys,  for  having  rattled  and  splurged  and 
hammered  and  tinkled  and  growled  through  three  or  four  musical 
compositions  with  long-line  names,  fills  his  pockets  for  one  night's 
work  with  as  many  dollars  as  three-fourths  of  the  community  earn 
in  a  year,  while  the  mustached  gentleman  who  assists  him  by  quaver- 
ing, quivering  and  shouting  through  three  or  four  songs  in  as  many 
different  European  languages,  which  is  all  gibberish  to  all  of  the  audi- 
ence with  perhaps  the  exception  of  some  dozen,  pockets  one-half 
as  much  more. 

We  think  music  is  an  art  which  deserves  fostering  and  cultivating 
as  much  as  any  other  art  among  our  people,  but  we  feel  no  ways 
backward  in  saying  that  from  a  common-sense  point  of  view,  the 
musical  furore  which  pervades  this  country  for  wonderful  piano 
playing  and  extraordinary  effects  of  vocal  powers  in  foreign  lan- 
guages, like  what  it  is,  is  thorough  humbug. 

The  Americans  are  a  musical  people,  but  we  want  to  be  educated 
up  to  the  science  and  so  long  as  nine-tenths  of  our  people  do  not 
know  even  the  A.B.C.  of  music,  it  is  folly  for  them  to  listen  to  the 
most  finished  and  eloquent  combinations  of  it. 

According  to  Robert  P.  Nevin,  Stephen  Foster  enjoyed 
the  friendship  of  artists  of  the  highest  distinction.  "Herz, 
Sivori,  Ole  Bull  and  Thalberg  were  ready  to  approve  his 
genius  and  to  testify  to  their  approval  by  the  choice  of 
his  melodies  about  which  to  weave  their  witcheries  of 
embellishment."  Complimentary  letters  from  men  of 
literary  note  poured  in  upon  him,  among  others  one  full 


DRIFTING  79 


of  generous  encouragement  from  Washington  Irving, 
dearly  prized  and  carefully  treasured  until  the  day  of  his 
death.  Similar  missives  reached  him  from  overseas, 
from  strangers  and  travellers  in  remote  lands,  and  "he 
learned  that  while  'O  Susanna'  was  the  favorite  song  of 
the  cottager  on  the  Clyde,  'Uncle  Ned'  was  known  to 
the  dweller  among  the  pyramids." 

Morrison  Foster  says  that  "from  1853  to  1860  Stephen 
lived  at  home"  (home  evidently  being  with  his  parents 
in  Alleghany  City).  But  this  home  was  soon  to  be  broken 
up  and  Stephen  was  to  experience  in  reality  those  emo- 
tions of  grief  and  sorrow  which  had  so  often  been  the 
burden  of  his  song.  His  mother  died  suddenly  in  Janu- 
ary, 1855,  and  his  father,  who  had  been  an  invalid  for 
four  years,  survived  her  only  a  few  months,  his  death 
occurring  in  July  of  the  same  year.  This  double  loss 
must  have  been  a  terrible  blow  to  a  nature  so  affectionate 
and  sensitive  as  Stephen's:  His  love  for  his  mother 
amounted  to  adoration.  This  is  one  point  at  least  on 
which  there  is  no  conflicting  testimony.  The  family 
letters  are  sufficient  evidence,  were  any  needed,  of  the 
unusual  affection  that  characterized  the  relations  of  the 
different  members  of  the  family. 

In  the  notices  of  Mrs.  Foster's  death  which  appeared 
in  the  Pittsburgh  papers,  she  is  spoken  of  as  "the  mother 
of  Stephen  C.  Foster,  the  celebrated  song-writer,"  indi- 
cating that  Stephen  was  accounted  a  celebrity.  His 
name  is  mentioned  before  that  of  his  father,  twice  Mayor 
of  Alleghany  City,  or  that  of  his  brother,  builder  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad. 

Early  in  the  Spring  of  the  following  year  (1856) 
another  gap  was  made  in  the  family  circle  by  the  death 
of  Dunning  Foster.  The  family  Bible  states  that  Mor- 
rison and  Stephen  were  with  him  in  Cincinnati  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

During  these  years  Stephen's  musical  productivity 
grew  less  and  less.  Five  songs  appeared  in  1854,  four 


80 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

in  1855  and  one  each  in  1856  and  1857.  Several  of  these 
songs  became  immensely  popular,  although  few  of  them 
are  remembered  to-day:  "Ellen  Bayne,"  "Hard  Times 
Come  Again  No  More,"  "Jeanie  with  the  Light  Brown 
Hair,"  "Willie,  We  Have  Missed  You,"  and  "Come 
Where  My  Love  Lies  Dreaming,"  belong  to  the  past, 
along  with  the  crinoline  and  the  daguerreotype. 

In  many  of  the  contemporary  references  to  Stephen 
Foster,  found  in  old  newspapers  and  magazines,  he  is 
described  as  "the  author  and  composer  of  'Willie,  We 
Have  Missed  You.'  '  The  popularity  of  this  song  is 
difficult  to  account  for,  as  it  is  one  of  his  poorest. 
"Jeanie  with  the  Light  Brown  Hair"  and  "Come 
Where  My  Love  Lies  Dreaming"  have  more  to  recom- 
mend them.  In  the  latter  song  he  attempted  a  more 
elaborate  construction  than  was  his  wont,  but  it  cannot 
be  said  that  he  succeeded  well  in  handling  it,  for  the 
song  is  overly  long  and  rather  wandering. 

Foster  is  said  to  have  believed  that  the  melody  of  the 
song  "John  Brown's  Body"  was  taken  from  his  "Ellen 
Bayne."  The  resemblance  is  certainly  close  enough  to 
have  justified  this  belief,  although  it  is  not  sufficient  in 
itself  to  be  conclusive  proof  of  plagiarism. 

All  of  these  songs  were  published  by  Firth,  Pond  & 
Co.  There  is  a  contract  with  this  firm,  dated  December 
21st,  1854.  The  first  "Article"  states  that  Foster  is  to 
receive  10%  on  all  future  vocal  compositions,  except  the 
arrangements  with  guitar  accompaniment ;  Articles  Two 
and  Three  enumerate  twenty-nine  previously  published 
compositions  on  which  Foster  is  to  receive  10%  and  8% 
as  specified.  Other  articles  deal  with  instrumental  com- 
positions and  arrangements  for  voice  and  guitar;  ac- 
counts to  be  rendered  every  three  months;  Firth,  Pond 
&  Co.  to  own  the  copyright  and  proprietorship  of  the 
music  and  to  attend  to  all  business  and  to  pay  all  ex- 
penses; the  contract  to  annul  all  previous  contracts, 
reference  being  made  to  contracts  signed  December  3rd, 


•«          «"//  /  /V  V 

01  *H  *L^^/ /  '^\ 


The  last  page  of  the  Manuscript  Book 


DRIFTING  81 


1849  and  May  5th,  1853,  which  henceforth  become  null 
and  void.  The  signature  of  Stephen  Foster  has  been 
removed  from  this  contract  and  given  to  an  autograph 
hunter,  name  unknown. 

In  1854  was  published  "The  Social  Orchestra  for  Flute 
or  Violin;  A  collection  of  popular  melodies  arranged  as 
solos,  duos,  trios  and  quartets.  By  Stephen  C.  Foster." 
The  "Introduction,"  dated  "New  York,  January,  1854," 
says: 

The  publishers  herewith  offer  to  the  public  a  collection  of  instru- 
mental music,  the  melodies  of  which  have  been  taken  from  among 
the  most  popular  operatic  and  other  music  of  the  day,  and  arranged 
in  an  easy  and  correct  manner,  as  Solos,  Duets,  Trios  and  Quartets, 
suitable  for  serenades,  evenings  at  home,  &c.  Having  long  noticed 
the  want  of  such  a  work,  they  have  determined  to  issue  one  that  will 
meet  with  general  approbation,  and  have  confided  the  task  of  select- 
ing and  arranging  the  melodies  to  a  gentleman  of  acknowledged 
taste,  and  composer  of  some  of  the  most  popular  airs  ever  written 
in  this  or  any  other  country,  as  will  be  seen  by  reference  to  the 
name  on  the  title  page. 

"The  Social  Orchestra"  contained  arrangements  of 
seven  of  Foster's  own  songs,  as  well  as  an  original  schot- 
tische,  four  quadrilles,  a  "Village  Festival  Jig"  and  the 
"Old  Folks  Quadrille"  in  five  parts.  For  his  work  in 
compiling  and  arranging  "The  Social  Orchestra"  Foster 
received  $150. 

The  following  letter,  which  we  publish  unexpurgated, 
was  written  to  his  friend,  William  Hamilton: 

Pittsburgh,  Jan.  16th,  1857. 
Dear  Billy: 

Your  letter  from  Point  Pleasant  has  been  received  and  I  am  glad 
to  know  of  the  whereabouts  of  the  great  North  American  ballad 
singer.  When  can  you  promise  to  appear  again  before  a  Pittsburgh 
audience?  Masonic  Hall  can  be  had  now. 

I  have  also  had  an  engagement  tendered  me,  but  I  declined. 
Kleber  is  going  to  give  a  concert  and  he  has  offered  me  the  post  of 
first  anvil  player  in  the  "Anvil  Chorus"  from  a  new  opera.  I  was 
unwilling  to  go  through  the  course  of  training  and  dieting  requisite 
for  the  undertaking  and  consequently  declined.  I  understand  that 
he  has  sent  to  Europe  for  a  "first  anvil."  We  have  had  another 
little  political  brush  in  the  election  of  Mayor,  but  there  was  very 
little  excitement.  I  have  not  yet  received  the  Cincinnati  Gazette 
and  suppose  that  puff  has  not  appeared.  I  will  send  you  by  this 
mail  a  copy  of  "Jeanie  with  the  Light  Brown  Hair"  if  I  can  find  a 
copy.  Mit  is  now  living  with  us.  James  Buchanan  returned  yester- 


82 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

day  from  a  long  visit  home.  Mrs.  Foster  and  Maggie  are  quite  well. 
Your  account  of  your  appearance  on  the  stage  rather  got  them. 

I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  that  dog,  "Rat  Trap,"  as  we  call 
him  on  account  of  his  well-known  ferocity  towards  those  animals. 
You  must  pardon  me  if  I  inform  you  that  he  is  now  with  us  no 
more.  He  continued  to  devour  shoes,  stockings,  spools,  the  cat,  and 
everything  else  that  he  could  find  lying  around  loose.  At  last  we 
held  a  council  of  war  and  thought  that  we  would  put  him  in  the 
yard,  then  we  thought  we  wouldn't.  We  concluded  at  last  to  put 
him  in  the  cellar.  There  he  stayed  for  three  days  and  howled  all  the 
time  and  would  have  howled  till  now  if  I  had  not  let  him  out.  I  was 
afraid  the  neighbors  would  inform  on  us  for  keeping  a  nuisance.  Soli- 
tary confinement  did  not  agree  with  him.  He  lost  his  appetite. 
Then  I  gave  him  some  garlic  as  you  had  instructed  me.  This  gave 
him  a  sort  of  diarrhea  and  he  got  to  Mit's  room  and  defiled  his  bed, 
then  he  scattered  Mit's  dirty  shirts  over  the  floor,  sprinkled  his  shoes 
and  played  hob  generally.  This  performance  seemed  to  bring  him 
to  his  appetite,  for  the  same  evening  he  stole  a  whole  beef  steak  off 
the  kitchen  table  and  swallowed  it  raw.  We  concluded  this  was  too 
much  to  stand  even  from  "friendship's  offering,"  so  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  trade  him  off.  John  Little  had  a  friend  in  Chicago  who 
wanted  just  such  a  dog,  so  he  gave  me  a  very  fine  Scotch  terrier 
eighteen  months  old  for  him.  "Trap"  is  enjoying  the  lake  breezes. 
/  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  that  dog. 

James  Buchanan  has  just  come  in  to  see  me,  so  here  I  will  wind  up. 

Your  friend, 

STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER. 


Morrison  Foster  thus  describes  his  brother : 
"A  stranger  meeting  him  for  the  first  time  would  have 
observed  nothing  striking  in  his  appearance,  but  an 
acquaintance  and  a  few  moments'  observation  of  and 
conversation  with  him  would  satisfy  him  that  he  was  in 
the  presence  of  a  man  of  genius  who,  however  modest  in 
his  demeanor,  was  accustomed  to  look  deep  into  the 
thoughts  and  motives  of  men. 

"In  person  he  was  slender,  in  height  not  over  five  feet 
seven  inches.  His  figure  was  handsome;  exceedingly  well 
proportioned.  His  feet  were  small,  as  were  his  hands 
which  were  soft  and  delicate.  His  head  was  large  and 
well  proportioned.  The  features  of  his  face  were  regu- 
lar and  striking.  His  nose  was  straight,  inclined  to 
aquiline,  his  nostrils  full  and  dilated.  His  mouth  was 
regular  in  form  and  the  lips  full.  His  most  remarkable 


DRIFTING  83 


features  were  his  eyes.  They  were  very  dark  and  very 
large  and  lit  up  with  unusual  intelligence.  His  hair  was 
dark,  nearly  black.  The  color  of  his  eyes  and  hair  he 
inherited  from  his  mother,  some  of  whose  remote  ances- 
tors were  Italian,  though  she  was  directly  of  English 
descent.  In  conversation  he  was  very  interesting,  but 
more  suggestive  than  argumentative.  He  was  an  excel- 
lent listener,  though  well  informed  on  every  current 
topic. 

"It  was  difficult  to  get  him  to  go  into  society  at  all. 
He  had  a  great  aversion  to  its  shams  and  glitter,  and  pre- 
ferred the  realities  of  his  home  and  the  quiet  of  his  study. 
When  he  was  eighteen  years  old,  a  lady  who  was  an  old 
friend  of  the  family,  gave  a  large  party  and  invited  us 
all,  and  added,  'Tell  Stephen  to  bring  his  flute  with 
him.'  That  settled  it  so  far  as  he  was  concerned.  He 
would  not  go  a  step.  He  said,  'Tell  Mrs.  —  -  I  will  send 
my  flute  if  she  desires  it.'  This  dislike  to  being  classed 
as  a  mere  performer  characterized  him  during  his  whole 
life,  though  he  was  not  at  all  unsocial,  and  willingly  sang 
or  played  for  the  enjoyment  of  himself  or  others,  if  the 
occasions  were  spontaneous  and  not  set  up.  He,  how- 
ever, often  sang  in  chorus  with  others,  upon  occasions  of 
concerts  for  charitable  purposes  in  Pittsburgh. 

"While  he  never  aspired  to  greatness  as  a  performer, 
his  voice  was  a  true  and  pleasing  baritone,  sonorous  and 
sympathetic.  When  he  sang  his  own  songs,  which  he 
did  to  a  perfection  no  one  else  could  attain,  there  was  a 
plaintive  sweetness  in  his  tone  and  accent  which  some- 
times drew  tears  from  listeners'  eyes. 

"He  would  sit  at  home  in  the  evening  at  the  piano 
and  improvise  by  the  hour  beautiful  strains  and  har- 
monies which  he  did  not  preserve,  but  let  them  float 
away  like  fragrant  flowers  cast  upon  the  flowing  waters. 
Occasionally  he  would  vary  his  occupation  by  singing  in 
plaintive  tones  one  of  his  own  or  other  favorite  songs.  Of 
the  latter  class  he  much  admired  the  'May  Queen'  of 


84 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Tennyson,  and  the  music  composed  by  Mr.  Dempster. 
His  rendering  of  the  verse, 

To-night  I  saw  the  sun  set, 
He  set  and  left  behind,  etc., 

was  truly  pathetic.  At  times  tears  could  be  seen  on 
his  cheeks  as  he  sang  this  song,  so  sensitive  was  his 
nature  to  the  influence  of  true  poetry  combined  with 
music.  I  usually  sat  near  him  on  these  occasions  and 
listened  quietly  with  profound  delight.  Sometimes  he 
would  whirl  round  on  the  piano  stool  and  converse  a 
few  mintues  with  me,  then  resume  his  improvisa- 
tions and  his  singing.  Through  the  long  years  of  the 
past  those  pleasing  sounds  and  the  recollection  of 
those  evenings  at  home  still  linger  gratefully  in  my 
memory. 

"He  had  certain  favorites  among  his  neighbors  and 
friends  whom  he  preferred  to  have  assist  him  in  singing 
the  choruses  of  his  songs  while  they  were  in  course  of 
preparation.  These  he  chose  because  of  the  excellence 
of  their  voices  and  correct  method  of  singing. 

"He  always,  with  rare  exceptions,  wrote  the  words  as 
well  as  the  music  of  his  songs.  He  said  the  difficulty  of 
harmonizing  sounds  with  words  rendered  this  necessary, 
though  he  would  have  often  gladly  dispensed  with  the 
writing  of  the  words  if  he  could. 

"He  delighted  in  playing  accompaniments  on  the  flute 
to  the  singing  and  playing  on  the  piano  of  his  sister  or 
one  of  his  lady  friends.  These  little  concerts  were  very 
delightful  and  gave  the  greatest  pleasure  to  the  house- 
hold. As  the  song  went  on  he  would  improvise,  without 
the  slightest  hesitation  or  difficulty,  the  most  beautiful 
variations  upon  the  musical  theme. 

"Melodies  appeared  to  dance  through  his  brain  con- 
tinually. Often  at  night  he  would  get  out  of  bed,  light 
a  candle  and  jot  down  some  notes  of  a  melody  on  a  piece 
of  paper,  then  retire  again  to  bed  and  to  sleep. 


DRIFTING  85 


"He  was  very  simple  in  his  taste,  and  no  matter  how 
well  his  income  justified  it,  he  shrank  from  everything 
like  display.  The  simplest  forms  of  food  satisfied  him. 
Indeed,  he  never  appeared  to  care  what  was  set  before 
him  on  the  table.  If  it  appeased  hunger  it  was  all  he 
cared  for. 

"His  companions  were  seldom  ever  musicians.  Out- 
side of  his  own  studies  and  performances  he  seemed  to 
prefer  to  get  away  from  music  and  musical  topics.  But 
he  was  very  fond  of  the  society  of  cultured  people  and 
men  of  genius  in  walks  entirely  different  from  his  own." 

From  the  same  authority  we  quote  several  anecdotes 
illustrative  of  his  character: 

"This  sensitive  man  had  the  nerve  and  courage  of  a 
lion  physically.  From  earliest  childhood  he  was  noted 
for  his  courage,  coolness  and  skill  in  the  combats  which 
continually  occur  among  boys  of  the  same  town.  As  he 
grew  up,  no  odds  ever  seemed  to  awe  him.  He  was 
known  as  one  who  must  be  let  alone,  and  was  held  in 
high  respect  accordingly. 

"One  night  as  he  was  returning  home  from  Pittsburgh 
to  Alleghany,  he  found  at  the  end  of  the  bridge  two  brutes 
abusing  and  beating  a  drunken  man.  He  of  course  inter- 
fered, and  fought  them  both  rough  and  tumble  all  over 
the  street.  He  managed  to  pick  up  a  piece  of  board  in 
the  scramble,  with  which  he  beat  one  almost  senseless 
and  chased  the  other  ingloriously  from  the  field.  A  knife 
wound  in  the  cheek,  received  in  the  encounter,  left  a  scar 
which  went  with  him  to  his  grave. 

"His  sympathies  were  always  with  the  lowly  and  the 
poor.  Once  on  a  stormy  winter  night  a  little  girl,  sent 
on  an  errand,  was  run  over  by  a  dray  and  killed.  She 
had  her  head  and  face  covered  by  a  shawl  to  keep  off 
the  peltings  of  the  storm  and  in  crossing  the  street  she 
ran  under  the  horses'  feet.  Stephen  was  dressed  and 
about  going  to  an  evening  party  when  he  learned  of  the 
tragedy.  He  went  immediately  to  the  house  of  the  little 


86 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

girl's  father,  who  was  a  poor  working  man  and  a  neighbor 
whom  he  esteemed.  He  gave  up  all  thought  of  going  to 
the  party  and  remained  all  night  with  the  dead  child 
and  her  afflicted  parents,  endeavoring  to  afford  the  latter 
what  comfort  he  could. 

"On  another  occasion  he  had  bought  a  small  clock, 
run  by  springs,  and  set  it  on  the  mantelpiece  of  his 
chamber.  The  thing  had  a  very  loud  tick,  and  there  was 
no  way  of  stopping  it  after  it  was  once  wound  up.  He 
could  not  get  to  sleep,  for  the  clock  with  its  monotonous 
clang  drove  slumber  away.  He  wrapped  a  blanket 
around  it  and  shut  it  up  in  a  bureau  drawer.  But  the 
dull  throbbing  sound  which  reached  his  ears  from  that 
retreat  was,  as  he  said,  worse  than  the  loud,  open,  defiant 
tick  from  the  mantelpiece.  He  then  lit  a  candle,  and 
took  it  down  to  the  dining  room  cupboard,  but  still  he 
could  hear  it  faintly.  At  length,  in  despair,  he  carried 
the  ticking  monster  down  to  the  cellar,  in  the  profound- 
est  depths  of  which  he  covered  it  with  a  washtub;  and 
then  returning  to  his  room,  carefully  closed  every  door 
behind  him  and  at  last  found  rest." 


After  three  or  four  years  of  apathy,  1858  saw  a  re- 
newal of  energy  in  composition,  four  songs  being  pub- 
lished in  that  year,  six  in  1859  and  eleven  in  1860.  With 
the  exception  of  three  negro  songs  in  1860,  these  composi- 
tions are  all  of  a  sentimental  character,  many  of  them 
sorrowing  over  the  departed  joys  of  the  past.  "Under 
the  Willows  She's  Sleeping,"  "Sadly  to  My  Heart  Ap- 
pealing," "Linda  Has  Departed,"  "Kiss  Me,  Dear 
Mother,"  "Poor  Drooping  Maiden,"  and  "None  Shall 
Weep  a  Tear  for  Me,"  are  examples  of  these  tearful  bal- 
lads. Others  are  more  cheerful:  "Beautiful  Child  of 
Song,"  "Jenny's  Coming  o'er  the  Green,"  "Fairy  Belle," 
"Parthenia  to  Ingomar,"  and  "Thou  Art  the  Queen  of 
My  Song." 


DRIFTING  87 


There  are  no  records  of  the  sales  of  any  of  these  songs, 
but  their  vogue  was  never  great  enough  to  have  meant 
a  very  large  income  for  their  composer. 

The  three  negro  songs  of  1860  are  the  last  of  this  type 
that  Foster  wrote.  "Glendy  Burke"  and  "Don't  Bet 
Your  Money  on  the  Shanghai"  return  to  the  original 
type  of  minstrel  jingle.  They  are  neither  better  nor 
worse  than  "Brudder  Gum,"  "O  Susanna,"  and  the  other 
products  of  his  youth.  The  intervening  years  have  not 
taken  away  his  ability  to  produce  nonsensical  jingles  and 
catchy  rhythms,  nor  have  they  added  to  his  power. 
"Old  Black  Joe"  is  one  of  the  best  of  the  Ethiopian  songs, 
and  has  taken  its  place  with  "My  Old  Kentucky  Home" 
and  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home"  among  the  songs  of  the 
people.  Like  them,  its  mood  is  one  of  gentle  melancholy, 
of  sorrow  without  bitterness.  There  is  a  wistful  tender- 
ness in  the  music. 

Gone  are  the  days  when  my  heart  was  young  and  gay, 
Gone  are  my  friends  from  the  cotton  fields  away, 
Gone  from  the  earth  to  a  better  land,  I  know, 
I  hear  their  gentle  voices  calling,  "Old  Black  Joe." 

I'm  coming,  I'm  coming,  for  my  head  is  bending  low, 
I  hear  their  gentle  voices  calling,  "Old  Black  Joe." 

The  following  letters,  all  written  to  his  brother  Mor- 
rison, are  the  last  of  Stephen's  letters  in  the  family  col- 
lection. 

Pittsburgh,  Nov.  11,  1858. 
Dear  Mit: 

Mary  Wick,  Jane,  Marian  and  I  start  to-morrow  for  Cincinna-ti, 
on  Billy  Hamilton's  boat,  the  "Ida  May."  We  all  went  to  see  Miss 
Davenport  last  night  at  the  "old"  theatre.  We  will  stir  old  John 
McClelland  up  in  Cincinnati,  make  the  children  sing  and  bring  in 
Billy's  bass  voice.  The  trip  will  be  recreation  and  variety  for  me. 
We  had  a  nice  duck  supper  with  her  the  other  evening.  (Siss  gets 
along  very  well  since  her  mother's  death.)  She  had  plenty  of  jokes 
about  Andy  as  usual. 

Our  old  friend  Bill  Blakely  died  this  morning.  There  is  a  very 
favorable  notice  of  him  in  this  evening's  "Chronicle."  I  posted 
O'Neill  on  the  matter.  When  I  saw  him  last  he  (Blakely)  said  he 
wondered  if  he  would  ever  see  you  again. 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER. 


88 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

"Jane"  and  "Marian"  mentioned  in  this  letter  were 
his  wife  and  little  daughter. 

They  are  mentioned  again  in  a  letter  to  Morrison  writ- 
ten in  the  following  summer: 

Pittsburgh,  August  15,  1859. 
Dear  Mit:, 

I  went  to  Baden  on  Saturday  and  took  Jane  with  me.  I  saw 
Mr.  Deerdorf,  who  said  that  the  crops  had  been  poor,  and  dull 
payment,  &c.,  &c.  In  short,  he  had  no  money.  He  had  not  received 
the  scratch  of  a  pen  from  you  for  a  long  time,  that  you  had  not 
demanded  the  money  when  it  was  due,  &c.  I  asked  him  when  he 
would  be  ready  with  the  money;  he  said  about  the  1st  of  October. 
I  told  him  to  leave  it  with  Henry.  We  took  dinner  and  tea  at  Mr. 
Anderson's.  He  was  not  at  home,  but  the  girls  were.  Mrs.  B.,  the 
youngest  daughter,  is  very  pretty  and  entertaining,  being  a  combina- 
tion of  Mary  Wick,  Mary  McClelland,  Mrs.  Mitchell,  Mrs.  Woods, 
etc.  With  much  love  to  all, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

S.  C.  FOSTER. 

With  the  letters  preserved  by  Morrison  is  a  daguerre- 
otype of  Stephen,  taken  in  1859;  attached  to  it  is  this 
note  from  Stephen: 

Pittsburgh,  June  15,  1859. 
My  dear  brother  Mit: 

Yesterday  my  neighbor,  who  has  the  Daguerreotype  establish- 
ment, invited  me  to  have  my  picture  taken.  I  think  it  is  rather 
good  and  I  send  it  to  you,  my  dear  brother. 

Wife  and  daughter  are  mentioned  again  in  this  letter 
of  the  following  spring: 

Warren,  Ohio,  April  27th,  1860. 
Dear  Mit, 

Please  send  me  by  return  mail  $12.  I  have  received  from  Firth, 
Pond  &  Co.  a  letter  stating  that  they  cannot  advance  me  any  more 
money  till  I  send  them  the  songs  now  due  them,  (about  two  as  I 
make  the  calculation)  as  our  present  agreement  is  about  expiring. 
They  show  a  disposition  to  renew  the  agreement,  but  very  properly 
require  payment  in  music  before  any  ne?/  arrangement.  I  have 
entered  into  an  agreement  with  a  new  house  for  part  of  my  music, 
but  the  terms  are  not  entirely  fixed,  I  cannot  well  draw  on  them 
now.  I  expect  to  be  in  Cleveland  very  soon  on  my  way  to  New 
York,  and  will  be  able  to  settle  with  you.  I  require  this  amount  for 
little  washing  bills,  etc.,  which  are,  you  know,  the  most  perplexing. 
Please  send  the  amount  immediately,  on  receipt  of  this. 

Jane  and  Marian  are  well,  also  Etty's  family  [his  sister].  I  am 
very  well,  but  had  as  I  supposed  a  slight  touch  of  ague  yesterday. 
I  think  to-day  that  it  was  only  a  false  alarm.  I  have  written  two 


Stephen  C.  Foster 

(From  the  daguerreotype  mentioned  in  the 
letter  of  June  15,  1859) 


DRIFTING  89 


songs  since  I  have  been  in  Warren  and  have  two  under  way,  but  do 
not  feel  inclined  to  send  them  off  half  made  up. 
Much  love  to  Jessie, 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

STEPHEN. 

Stephen  seems  to  have  been  in  the  habit  of  drawing  in 
advance  from  his  publishers  and  living  on  the  prospective 
royalties  of  the  new  songs.  A  month  later  he  writes  to 
his  brother  again  for  financial  assistance,  referring  again 
to  the  contemplated  trip  to  New  York. 

Warren,  Ohio,  May  31,  1860. 
Dear  Mit:, 

Herewith  I  send  you  a  draft  on  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  for  $50,  which 
I  wish  you  would  hold  for  ten  days,  and  if  you  can  conveniently, 
please  send  me  the  amount  by  return  mail.  There  will  be  no  trouble 
about  payment  of  draft.  I  have  only  one  song  to  finish  in  the  time 
mentioned.  I  desire  to  pay  Mr.  Schoenberger,  the  landlord,  at  the 
end  of  the  month,  as  I  engaged  to  do,  and  have  told  him  that  I  would 
pay  him  when  I  would  hear  from  Cleveland.  I  have  received  a  very 
cheering  letter  yesterday  from  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  and  feel  in  good 
spirits  generally. 

Jesse  Thornton  arrived  yesterday  looking  very  well.  We  all  did 
our  best  to  give  him  a  hearty  welcome  and  you  never  saw  such  a 
happy  family.  He  informs  me  that  Jessie  (yours)  was  in  Cleveland, 
therefore  I  infer,  that  you  have  been  in  Pittsburgh  since  I  saw  you. 
I  expect  to  start  for  New  York  before  very  long  and  hope  to  see  you 
both. 

Your  affectionate  brother, 

STEPHEN  C.  FOSTER. 


VII 
TRAGEDY 

The  old  box  of  letters  which  has  been  our  principal 
link  with  the  past,  is  nearly  empty.  It  contains  only 
three  more  references  to  Stephen.  The  first  is  a  letter 
from  a  friend  of  Stephen's  in  New  York,  after  an  interval 

of  four  years: 

New  York  City,  January  12th,  1864. 
Morrison  Foster,  Esq., 

Your  brother  Stephen  I  am  sorry  to  inform  you  is  lying  in  Bellevue 
Hospital  in  this  city  very  sick.  He  desires  me  to  ask  you  to  send  him 
some  pecuniary  assistance  as  his  means  are  very  low.  If  possible, 
he  would  like  to  see  you  in  person. 

Yours  very  truly, 

GEORGE  COOPER. 

Dated  two  days  later  is  this  telegram: 


Bowery,  New  York  City,  N.  Y. 
Cleveland,  Jan.  14,  1864,  by  telegraph  from  New  York. 
To  Morrison  Foster, 

Stephen  is  dead.    Come  on. 

GEORGE  COOPER. 

We  have  come  to  the  end  of  the  pitiful  story.  In  some 
way  Stephen  Foster  had  fallen  upon  evil  fortune  and 
had  made  shipwreck  of  his  life.  More  has  been  written 
about  these  last  four  years  than  of  any  other  portion  of 
his  life,  and  yet  very  little  is  definitely  known  about 
them.  Even  during  his  lifetime,  myths  and  legends 
began  to  accumulate  about  him,  and  after  his  death 
they  multiplied  rapidly.  His  brother  Morrison  was  kept 
busy  denying  and  refuting  these  tales,  but  they  con- 
tinued to  appear  from  time  to  time,  and  apparently  the 
end  is  not  yet.  The  extraordinary  popularity  of  his 
songs  led  many  who  had  known  him  to  indulge  in  fic- 
titious '  'reminiscences.  '  '  Evidently  some  of  these  writers 
were  inspired  by  a  desire  to  shine  in  some  sort  of  reflected 
glory.  The  authorship  of  some  of  the  Foster  songs  has 
been  disputed,  on  the  flimsiest  of  evidence,  and  much  is 
made  of  the  destitution  and  loneliness  of  his  last  days  in 

90 


TRAGEDY 91 

New  York.  I  have  examined  carefully  at  least  a  score 
of  these  "reminiscences"  published  in  various  periodi- 
cals during  the  last  fifty  years,  and  have  found  little  in 
any  of  them  worthy  of  credence,  while  many  of  them  are 
obviously  imaginary. 

One  evidence  of  their  falsity  is  the  fact  that  a  large 
number  of  them  were  copied  obviously  one  from  another, 
sometimes  word  for  word.  This  is  a  striking  character- 
istic of  much  of  the  literature  about  Foster.  Not  only  are 
the  same  anecdotes  repeated,  but  the  very  language  of  the 
originator  of  each  story  is  perpetuated  from  year  to  year. 

Each  writer  proclaims  himself  "Steve's  only  friend  on 
earth,"  but  if  they  could  all  have  been  assembled  to- 
gether, they  would  have  made  a  goodly  company.  The 
unappreciated  genius  has  been  stock  in  trade  for  ro- 
mancers the  world  over,  and  the  temptation  to  make 
literary  capital  out  of  the  friendless  wanderer  whose 
songs  of  home  and  mother  had  touched  the  world's  heart 
was  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  "Loving  music,  he  heard 
none;  with  a  loving  nature,  he  wandered  the  Bowery  and 
saw  no  face  he  knew."  "The  most  familiar  sounds  he 
heard  were  his  own  songs,  the  least  familiar  sight  a 
friendly  face."  By  these,  and  similar  statements,  have 
the  journalists  sought  to  bring  out  the  "high  lights"  of 
his  story. 

A  "reminiscence"  which  was  reprinted  frequently  was 
written  by  George  Birdseye.  This  article,  with  but 
slight  changes  in  the  wording,  went  on  its  way  for  many 
years  from  newspaper  to  magazine.  Sometimes  the  re- 
print was  acknowledged,  usually  it  was  put  forth  as  some- 
thing new.  Several  copies  of  the  Birdseye  story,  clipped 
from  various  periodicals,  are  included  in  Morrison 
Foster's  papers ;  on  the  margin  of  one  of  them  is  the  com- 
ment, "This  fellow  is  evidently  a  fraud.  M.F." 

There  is  pathos  enough  in  the  reality,  without  painting 
the  picture  in  any  darker  colors  than  need  be.  Stephen's 
last  days  in  New  York  were  miserable  enough  in  all 


92 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

truth  and  his  death  one  of  the  saddest  of  all  those  re- 
corded in  the  old,  old  story  of  unhappy  genius.  "Facilis 
descensus  Averni"  Stephen's  downfall  was  probably 
the  result  of  a  gradual  disintegration  that  had  been 
going  on  through  the  years.  If  we  shall  never  know  the 
causes  or  exact  circumstances,  we  know  enough  to 
awaken  a  sense  of  pity.  Let  us  endeavor  to  avoid 
the  highly  colored  pallet  of  the  special  writer  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  obliterating  whitewash  brush  of 
the  special  pleader  on  the  other. 

Stephen  went  to  New  York  in  July,  1860.  There  is 
no  evidence  that  he  broke  off  relations  with  his  family 
by  doing  so.  William  B.  Foster,  Jr.,  the  "big  brother" 
of  his  childhood,  had  died  in  Philadelphia  a  few  months 
before,  but  his  other  brothers,  Morrison  and  Henry,  were 
still  interested  in  him,  as  were  his  sisters.  He  was  thirty- 
four  years  old  when  he  went  to  New  York  and  still 
young  enough  to  have  rescued  his  life  from  disaster,  had 
he  possessed  the  necessary  strength  of  character. 

Whether  or  not  his  wife  and  daughter  accompanied 
him  to  New  York  in  1860,  I  do  not  know.  One  of  the 
few  reminiscences  that  bear  any  evidence  of  credibility 
was  written  for  the  "New  York  Clipper"  in  1877  by 
John  Mahon.  He  tells  of  meeting  Foster  in  1861,  at 
Windust's  Restaurant  in  Park  Row,  "a  short  man,  who 
was  very  neatly  dressed  in  a  blue  swallow-tailed  coat, 
high  silk  hat,  and-so-forth  (the  and-so-foith  I  forget). 
I  must  say  I  found  him  most  social  and  conversational. 
I  took  him  to  my  residence  and  introduced  him  to  my 
family,  and  nearly  all  of  his  latest  songs  were  composed 
upon  my  piano.  At  that  time  he  boarded  at  No.  83 
Greene  Street,  with  his  wife  and  little  daughter  Marian, 
who  was  about  eight  years  old.  The  boarding-house  was 
kept  by  a  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Stewart." 

If  Mrs.  Foster  was  in  New  York  in  1861,  she  must 
have  left  soon  after,  for  she  was  not  with  him  during  his 
last  days,  nor  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


TRAGEDY  93 


Mahon  tells  of  first  hearing  Foster's  songs  "O  Su- 
sanna" and  "Uncle  Ned"  in  1852  in  Patras,  Greece, 
where  he  was  clerk  to  a  ship-chandler.  The  songs  had 
been  brought  there  by  the  family  of  an  English  sea- 
captain.  Mahon  later  heard  them  played  by  the  British 
army  bands  in  Malta,  and  during  the  voyage  from  Malta 
to  New  York  on  the  bark  "Wildfire,"  he  heard  the  sailors 
sing  many  of  Foster's  songs,  especially  "  'Way  Down 
Upon  the  Swanee  River."  He  claims  (and  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  his  word)  that  he  was  Foster's  friend 
from  the  time  of  their  meeting  in  1861  until  the  latter's 
death  in  1864. 

"In  January,  1864,"  he  writes,  "I  was  compelled,  in 
consequence  of  severe  illness,  to  part  with  Foster  and 
enter  the  pay-ward  of  Bellevue  Hospital.  On  the  10th 
of  that  month  I  lost  my  wife,  the  mother  of  my  children. 
On  the  13th  my  friend  died  in  the  same  hospital,  and  I 
knew  not  that  he  was  even  in  there,  the  first  intimation 
I  had  of  his  death  being  a  short  account  of  his  funeral 
in  the  papers." 

Mahon  has  something  to  say  about  the  "Old  Folks  at 
Home"  controversy: 

One  night,  while  sitting  in  my  apartments,  then  at  311  Henry 
Street,  my  wife  asked  Stephen  if  he  knew  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home." 

"I  should  think  I  ought  to,"  he  replied,  "for  I  got  $2,000  (not 
$15,000)  from  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  for  it." 

"Why,  said  I,  "how  could  that  be?  Was  not  E.  P.  Christy  the 
author  and  composer?" 

"Oh  no,"  replied  he,  laughing,  "Christy  paid  me  $15  (not  $500) 
for  allowing  his  name  to  appear  as  the  author  and  composer.  I  did 
so  on  condition  that  after  a  certain  time  his  name  should  be  super- 
seded by  my  own.  One  hundred  thousand  copies  of  the  first  edition 
were  soon  sold,  for  which  I  received  a  royalty  of  two  cents  per  copy, 
and  received  $1,400  for  'Willie,  We  Have  Missed  You'  in  the  same 
way.  Subsequently  I  sold  out  my  royalties,  and  have  now  a  con- 
tract to  furnish  Pond  with  twelve  songs  a  year,  for  which  I  receive 
$800  per  annum,  payable  monthly  at  $66.66,  and  I  have  permission 
to  furnish  six  songs  per  annum  to  Lee  &  Walker  of  Philadelphia  for 
$400,  so  my  income  is  now  $1200  per  annum." 

Many  of  Mahon's  anecdotes  are  of  doubtful  value  and 
he  strains  credulity  to  the  breaking-point  when  he  tells 
of  Stephen  stopping  on  the  street  to  jot  down  musical 


94 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

themes  on  his  thumb-nail  with  a  pencil  ( !) ;  but  many  of 
his  statements  are  quite  plausible  and  are  not  con- 
tradicted by  known  facts,  as  are  those  of  some  of  his 
contemporaries. 

I  have  now  come  to  a  turn  in  the  tide  of  poor  Foster's  life.  I 
believe  I  have  already  stated  that  he  wrote  and  composed  most  of 
his  latest  songs  at  my  rooms,  in  Henry  Street.  One  of  these,  and 
a  most  beautiful  one,  "Our  Bright  Summer  Days  Are  Gone,"  he 
took  to  Pond,  who  refused  it  for  some  reason  or  other  and  it  made 
him  feel  very  despondent;  for  about  this  time  Lee  &  Walker  had 
ceased  employing  him  in  consequence  of  hard  times.  I  was  then 
"under  the  weather"  myself,  and  I  remember  one  evening  when 
we  were  both  pretty  "hard  up"  indeed,  neither  of  us  had  a  cent,  and 
I  had  a  family  besides,  suddenly  he  sat  down  to  the  piano. 

"John,"  he  said,  "I  haven't  time  to  write  a  new  song,  but  I  think 
I  can  write  'Our  Bright  Summer  Days  Are  Gone'  from  memory." 

"Take  this  round  to  Daly,"  he  said,  "and  take  what  he  will  give 
you." 

Mr.  John  J.  Daly,  now  of  944  Eighth  Avenue,  was  then  my  pub- 
lisher, and  was  at  419  Grand  Street.  I  took  the  song  to  Mr.  Daly. 
He  was  proud  to  get  a  song  from  Foster.  He  tried  it  over  and  it 
was  really  beautiful.  He  offered  a  sum,  which,  though  not  a  tithe 
of  what  Foster  got  in  his  better  days,  was  still  considered  very  hand- 
some; and  this  "stone  which  the  builders  rejected"  (Firth,  Pond 
Co.)  became  very  popular.  His  next  was  one  of  his  finest,  and  was 
named  "Our  Willie  Dear  Is  Dying";  next  "Little  Belle  Blair";  and 
then  followed  "When  the  Bowl  Goes  Round,"  "A  Thousand  Miles 
from  Home,"  and  many  others. 

The  song  "Our  Bright  Summer  Days  Are  Gone"  was 
published  by  John  J.  Daly  in  1861;  so  also  was  "Little 
Belle  Blair."  "Our  Willie  Dear"  was  published  in  the 
same  year  by  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.,  indicating  that  he  had 
not  broken  entirely  with  his  old  publishers.  But  they 
no  longer  took  his  entire  output,  as  they  had  done  for 
the  preceding  nine  years.  The  contract  of  December, 
1854,  in  which  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  agreed  to  pay  him 
10%  on  all  his  future  compositions,  may  have  been  fol- 
lowed by  another  in  which  they  agreed  to  pay  him  a 
salary  in  return  for  twelve  songs  a  year,  as  Mahon  says. 
It  had  been  ten  years  since  he  had  written  as  many  as 
twelve  songs  a  year,  but  he  might  have  agreed  to  do  so, 
as  it  was  easily  within  his  power.  The  letters  to  Mor- 
rison written  from  Warren,  Ohio,  in  1860,  quoted  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  make  such  a  supposition  plausible, 


TRAGEDY  95 


as  he  speaks  of  not  receiving  any  more  money  from  Firth, 
Pond  &  Co.  until  he  has  delivered  the  songs  due  them. 
This  would  either  indicate  a  regular  salary,  or  a  habit 
of  drawing  in  advance  on  future  royalties. 

The  salary  contract  with  Lee  &  Walker  of  Phila- 
delphia, to  which  Mahon  refers,  could  not  have  amounted 
to  much,  as  that  firm  appears  on  the  records  of  the  Copy- 
right Office  in  Washington  as  the  publisher  of  only  one 
song  by  Stephen  Foster,  "  'Jenny's  Coming  O'er  the 
Green,'  Ballad,  Written  and  Composed  for  the  Clark's 
School  Visitor  by  Stephen  C.  Foster,"  which  was  copy- 
righted in  1860.  Foster  wrote  three  other  songs  for 
"Clark's  School  Visitor,"  but  the  publishers'  name  is 
given  as  "Daughaday  &  Hammond,  Philadelphia."  If 
he  wrote  extensively  for  the  Philadelphia  publishers,  he 
must  have  done  so  under  another  name,  which  is  not 
probable,  as  in  these  latter  days  his  name  was  of  more 
value  than  his  music. 

Among  Morrison  Foster's  papers  there  are  numerous 
statements  of  royalty  payments  to  Stephen's  widow  and 
daughter  made  by  Wm.  A.  Pond  &  Co.  (the  successor 
to  Firth,  Pond  &  Co.)  on  the  sale  of  songs,  up  to  very 
recent  years,  when  the  last  copyright  expired.  There 
are  no  royalty  statements  from  any  other  firm,  and  I 
have  never  seen  anywhere  a  reference  to  royalties  paid 
him  by  any  other  publisher.  Judging  from  the  evidence, 
it  seems  probable  that  in  1860  the  contract  with  Firth, 
Pond  &  Co.,  upon  which  Stephen  had  been  living  for 
about  nine  years,  in  fact  since  the  time  when  they  took 
over  his  business  affairs  and  undertook  to  publish  all  his 
compositions,  was,  for  some  reason,  broken  off,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  take  his  songs  to  other  publishers  who 
paid  him  small  sums  outright  for  them.  Perhaps  the 
music  publishing  business  was  hard  hit  by  the  war,  and 
the  publishers  were  no  doubt  glad  to  get  Foster's  songs 
for  a  small  cash  payment,  while  Stephen,  without  a  regu- 
lar income  and  with  no  business  ability  or  experience, 


96 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

was  glad  to  part  with  them  for  whatever  he  could  get. 
For  most  of  them  he  did  not  receive  more  than  $25, 
which  was  all  to  the  advantage  of  the  publisher,  as  any 
song  with  his  name  on  the  title-page  was  almost  certain 
to  have  some  sale,  and  there  was  always  the  chance  that 
it  might  run  into  hundreds  of  thousands,  as  many  of  the 
earlier  ones  had.  If  this  theory  is  correct,  it  would  ac- 
count in  a  large  measure  for  the  poverty  and  distress  of 
his  last  years,  otherwise  inexplicable. 

There  is  nothing  to  indicate  why  the  contract  with 
Firth,  Pond  &  Co.  was  discontinued,  as  the  records  of 
the  firm  for  these  years  have  not  been  preserved.  The 
other  publishers  who  had  dealings  with  Foster  in  the 
three  years  preceding  his  death  have  either  gone  out  of 
business  or  have  destroyed  their  records. 

Whatever  the  circumstances,  Stephen  was  stirred  to 
greater  activity  than  he  had  ever  displayed  before.  His 
most  prolific  year  up  to  this  time  had  been  his  first  as  a 
professional  song- writer,  1850,  when  he  produced  fifteen 
songs;  his  poorest  years  were  1856  and  1857,  when  he 
wrote  only  two  songs,  one  each  year.  The  years  1858 
and  1859  each  brought  forth  six;  in  1860  there  are  eleven ; 
thirteen  in  1861,  sixteen  in  1862,  and  1863,  the  last  year 
of  his  life,  was  the  most  productive  of  all,  with  forty- 
eight.  Eleven  songs  were  published  posthumously  in 
1864,  the  year  of  his  death,  three  in  1865,  and  one  each 
in  1866  and  1870. 

Numerous  as  they  are,  if  Stephen  Foster  had  written 
nothing  but  these  songs  of  his  later  years,  his  name 
would  have  been  forgotten  long  ago.  Most  of  them  are 
extremely  commonplace,  and  obviously  are  pot-boilers. 
Stephen  had  never  mastered  sufficiently  the  technic  of 
composition  to  be  able  to  produce  interesting  music  on 
demand,  and  his  vocabulary  was  so  small  that  of  neces- 
sity he  repeated  himself  over  and  over  again.  He  could 
usually  find  a  melody  of  some  sort  without  much  trouble, 
but  after  a  bar  or  two  they  are  all  apt  to  follow  the  same 


TRAGEDY  97 


pattern.  Many  of  his  melodic  ideas  are  worthy  of  better 
treatment,  had  he  been  able  to  handle  them  with  greater 
skill.  But  even  in  these  miserable  days  when  he  was 
drawing  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  shadow,  now  and 
then  the  pure  ray  of  his  early  inspiration  shines  out  in  a 
melody  as  fresh  and  innocent  as  the  clear  voice  of  a 
child.  Such  are  "Little  Belle  Blair"  and  "Nell  and  I" 
(1861),  and  "Jenny  June"  and  "Katy  Bell"  (1863). 

A  few  of  the  songs  refer  to  the  war,  but  they  are  among 
the  poorest  and  were  evidently  produced  in  a  vain  effort 
to  find  the  way  to  the  public  purse,  rather  than  to  the 
public  heart. 

In  1863  Stephen  wrote  twenty-nine  songs  for  "The 
Atheneum  Collection  of  Hymns  and  Tunes  for  Church 
and  Sunday  School  Use,"  published  by  Horace  Waters. 
Most  of  these  "hymns"  are  feeble  little  tunes,  undis- 
tinguished by  either  beauty  or  force  of  character.  As  a 
writer  of  Sunday-School  hymns,  Stephen  Foster  was  not 
superior  to  his  contemporaries  whose  very  names  are  now 
forgotten.  Several  songs  in  the  Atheneum  Collection 
were  reprinted  later  in  similar  volumes,  and  some  of  his 
best-known  melodies  were  fitted  to  sacred  (?)  words. 
"Hard  Times  Come  Again  No  More"  was  converted  to 
"Sorrow  Shall  Come  Again  No  More";  a  Sunday-School 
hymn-book  published  in  1903  has  a  song,  "Hea£  the 
Gentle  Voice  of  Jesus,"  set  to  Foster's  "Massa's  in  the 
Cold,  Cold  Ground,"  and  another  hymn,  "Our  Shepherd 
True,"  set  to  "Swanee  River."  Another  book  has  the 
melody  of  "Old  Black  Joe"  with  the  words  "Long  from 
my  heart  the  world  and  all  its  charms." 

During  the  early  part  of  his  life  in  New  York,  Stephen 
received  a  visit  from  his  former  sweetheart,  Susan  Pent- 
land,  to  whom  he  had  dedicated  his  first  published  song, 
"Open  Thy  Lattice,  Love."  She  was  now  Mrs.  Robin- 
on,  and  her  son,  John  W.  Robinson  of  Pittsburgh, 
remembers  the  trip  to  New  York  with  his  parents  and 
the  meeting  with  Stephen  Foster.  The  exact  date  is 


98 STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

uncertain,  but  Mr.  Robinson  believes  that  it  was  just 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  probably  late  in  1860, 
or  early  in  1861.  They  stopped  at  the  St.  Nicholas 
Hotel,  on  Broadway,  near  Spring  Street,  and  the  street, 
jammed  with  busses,  made  a  deep  impression  on  the 
small  boy.  He  remembers  that  his  father  hunted  up 
Stephen  and  brought  him  to  dinner  at  the  hotel  and 
that  they  had  a  merry  time.  After  dinner  they  all  went 
to  Laura  Keen's  Theatre.  Mr.  Robinson  is  under  the 
impression  that  Stephen  was  making  a  living  as  a  music- 
teacher.  He  remembers  him  as  bright  and  entertaining, 
and  in  his  recollection  of  the  event  there  is  no  hint  of  the 
misery  and  destitution  that  afterward  overtook  Stephen. 

In  1888  the  New  York  "Evening  Sun"  published  a  long 
interview  with  "a  Pittsburgh  gentleman  who  is  about  to 
write  a  life  of  Stephen  C.  Foster,  the  author  of  'Come 
Where  My  Love  Lies  Dreaming,'  'Massa's  in  de  Cold, 
Cold  Ground,'  'Old  Dog  Tray,'  the  incomparable  'Old 
Folks  at  Home,'  which  has  brought  the  tears  to  thou- 
sands of  eyes  when  sung  by  Mme.  Christine  Nilsson  and 
other  divas  equally  celebrated,  and  many  other  melodies 
which  still  ring  in  the  ears  of  millions  of  lovers  of  har- 
mony in  this  and  other  countries."  Other  references  to 
projected  biographies  of  Stephen  Foster  are  to  be  found, 
but  apparently  none  of  them  was  ever  brought  to  com- 
pletion. 

All  of  these  reminiscences  emphasize  his  drunkenness 
and  destitution.  If  they  are  to  be  believed,  he  had  sunk 
to  the  lowest  depths  of  disreputable  degradation.  It  is 
undoubtedly  true  that  the  alcoholic  habit  had  laid  hold 
on  Stephen  too  tightly  ever  to  be  thrown  off.  It  is 
spoken  of  by  Robert  P.  Nevin,  in  his  friendly  and  sym- 
pathetic memoir  published  in  1867: 

His  disposition  was  truly  amiable,  although  from  the  tax  imposed 
by  close  application  to  study,  liable  to  fits  of  fretfulness  and  scep- 
ticism. Occasional  and  transient  as  they  were,  they  told  with  dis- 
tressing effect  upon  his  temper.  In  the  same  unfortunate  direction 
was  the  tendency  of  habit  grown  insidiously  upon  him,  a  habit 


TRAGEDY  99 


against  which,  as  no  one  better  than  the  writer  knows,  he  wrestled 
with  earnestness  indescribable,  resorting  to  all  remedial  expedients, 
which  professional  skill  or  his  own  experience  could  suggest,  but 
never  entirely  delivering  himself  from  its  damning  control. 

In  protesting  against  the  story  by  Birdseye,  which 
laid  special  stress  on  this  point,  Morrison  Foster  wrote 
to  an  editor: 

I  can  see  no  possible  good  to  be  attained  by  publishing  it.  If 
my  brother  had  been  distinguished  as  an  orator,  an  actor,  appear- 
ing before  the  public  in  person,  references  to  the  only  failing  he  ever 
had  might  perhaps  be  relevant,  but  the  public  knew  not  him  but 
only  of  him,  his  poetry  and  music  being  the  only  visible  sign  that 
such  a  being  really  existed  at  all;  reference  to  certain  peculiarities 
is  not  only  out  of  place,  but  is  a  cruel  tearing  open  of  old  wounds, 
which  the  grave  should  close  forever. 

But  this  "peculiarity"  made  good  "copy";  and  the 
story  has  been  told  so  often  that  to  many  minds  the  name 
of  Stephen  Foster,  like  that  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  is  a 
synonym  of  drunkenness.  The  world  has  always  de- 
manded dramatic  contrasts  in  its  stories.  It  more  than 
half  expects  its  geniuses  to  live  in  garrets  and  hovels,  or 
if  need  be,  in  a  Bowery  saloon.  To  the  common  mind  a 
genius  is  a  strange  being,  half  god  and  half  devil,  who  in  a 
moment  of  frenzy  dashes  off  a  bit  of  immortality,  and  who 
atones  for  the  possession  of  superior  gifts  by  exhibiting 
more  than  compensatory  defects.  Particularly,  the  musi- 
cal genius,  by  reason  of  the  abstract,  almost  occult, 
manner  of  his  expression,  is  a  special  victim  of  this 
popular  appetite  for  drama.  Mozart  and  Schubert  in 
their  poverty,  Beethoven  in  his  deafness,  the  blind  Han- 
del and  the  drunken  Stephen  Foster  will  always  have 
their  place  in  the  world's  story-book.  In  the  case  of 
Foster  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  emphasis  must  be  placed 
so  often  on  this  unhappy  trait,  which  his  family  would  so 
gladly  have  forgiven  and  forgotten ;  but  so  long  as  human 
nature  loves  garish  colors  in  its  picture-book,  it  is  not 
likely  to  be  otherwise.  "Drunken"  he  may  have  been 
in  these  last  sad  days;  "dissolute"  he  never  was.  The 
least  sympathetic  of  his  memorialists  give  him  credit  for 


100  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

the  purity  of  his  soul  and  the  manner  of  his  life.  He 
impressed  all  who  met  him  with  the  delicacy  and  sensi- 
bility of  his  nature.  A  more  robust  character,  a  stronger 
will,  might  have  taken  a  firmer  grip  on  life  and  shaken 
off  the  benumbing  influence  of  the  weakness  that  ruined 
his  career,  but  on  the  other  hand  probably  such  a  tem- 
perament could  not  have  produced  "Swanee  River." 
Sensitive,  introspective,  given  to  brooding  rather  than 
to  action,  Stephen  paid  the  penalty  of  his  temperament; 
the  world  is  richer  for  his  weakness. 

Out  of  the  incomplete  and  somewhat  conflicting  testi- 
mony on  the  subject,  one  fact  emerges  free  from  doubt 
and  conjecture;  Stephen  Foster  was  admitted  to  Ward 
11,  in  Bellevue  Hospital,  January  10,  1864,  and  died 
there  on  January  13th.  This  was  a  charity  ward,  the 
last  port  of  many  of  the  city's  human  derelicts.  Stephen 
Foster's  name  is  entered  on  the  register  as  "laborer," 
evidently  because  he  was  poorly  dressed  and  unidentified 
as  belonging  to  any  particular  occupation. 

So  far  as  the  record  of  the  family  letters  is  concerned, 
the  end  of  Stephen's  life  is  told  by  the  letter  and  telegram 
from  George  Cooper,  quoted  at  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter,  and  by  a  receipt  given  to  Morrison  Foster  by 
the  Warden  of  the  hospital : 

^ 
Ward  11,  Stephen  Foster,  Died  January  13th; 

Coat,  pants,  vest,  hat,  shoes,  overcoat,  January  10,  1864, 

Received  of  Mr.  Foster  ten  shillings  charge  for  Stephen  C. 

Foster,  while  in  hospital,  Jan.  16,  1864.    William  E.  White, 

Warden,  Bellevue  Hospital. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  events  connected  with  the 
writing  of  this  biography  was  the  discovery  that  George 
Cooper,  the  friend  who  notified  Morrison  Foster  of  his 
brother's  illness  and  death,  is  still  living;  Mr.  Cooper  is 
able  to  furnish  some  accurate  and  first-hand  information 
with  regard  to  Stephen's  last  days,  and  to  dispose  of  many 
of  the  legends  and  faulty  reminiscences  which  have 
flourished  of  late  years.  His  collaboration  with  Stephen 


TRAGEDY 101 

Foster  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  very  successful 
career  as  a  writer  of  song  lyrics,  a  career  that  brought 
him  into  intimate  contact  with  the  course  of  American 
musical  composition  during  the  past  fifty  years.  His 
name  appears  on  the  list  of  first  editions  of  Foster's 
songs,  published  by  the  Library  of  Congress,  as  the 
author  of  the  words  of  eighteen  of  the  songs.  One  of 
them  is  erroneously  attributed  to  "Henry"  Cooper,  due 
to  a  typographical  error  on  the  title-page  of  the  first 
edition. 

Shortly  after  my  first  interview  with  Mr.  Cooper,  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  and  talking  with  another 
person  who  had  known  Stephen  Foster — Mrs.  Parkhurst 
Duer,  a  lady  now  living  in  Brooklyn,  who  was  at  the 
time  of  Foster's  death  employed  in  the  music  store  of 
Horace  Waters.  The  interview  which  I  had  with  her 
was  recently  published,  in  substantially  the  same  form 
in  'The  Etude,"  from  which  the  following  quotation 
is  made: 


I  shall  never  forget  the  day  I  met  him.  I  was  engaged  in  a  large 
music  publishing  house  on  Broadway,  New  York  City,  leading  a  very 
busy  life,  although  but  twenty-one  years  of  age.  Every  day  I  met 
teachers  and  composers,  and  was  ever  hoping  that  Stephen  Foster 
would  appear.  I  had  heard  that  he  was  living  in  New  York,  but  had 
never  known  anything  about  his  life;  yet  his  songs  had  created  within 
me  a  feeling  of  reverence  for  the  man,  and  I  longed  to  see  him.  One 
day  I  was  speaking  with  the  clerks  when  the  door  opened,  and  a 
poorly  dressed,  very  dejected  looking  man  came  in,  and  leaned 
against  the  counter  near  the  door.  I  noticed  he  looked  ill  and  weak. 
No  one  spoke  to  him.  A  clerk  laughed  and  said: 

"Steve  looks  down  and  out." 

Then  they  all  laughed,  and  the  poor  man  saw  them  laughing 
at  him.  I  said  to  myself,  "Who  can  Steve  be?"  It  seemed  to  me, 
my  heart  stood  still.  I  asked,  "Who  is  that  man?" 

"Stephen  Foster,"  the  clerk  replied.  "He  is  only  a  vagabond, 
don't  go  near  him." 

"Yes,  I  will  go  near  him,  that  man  needs  a  friend,"  was  my  reply. 

I  was  terribly  shocked.  Forcing  back  the  tears,  I  waited  for  that 
lump  in  the  throat  which  prevents  speech,  to  clear  away.  I  walked 
over  to  him,  put  out  my  hand,  and  asked,  "Is  this  Mr.  Foster?" 

He  took  my  hand  and  replied: 

"Yes,  the  wreck  of  Stephen  Collins  Foster." 

"Oh,  no,"  I  answered,  "not  a  wreck,  but  whatever  you  call  your- 
self, I  feel  it  an  honor  to  take  by  the  hand  the  author  of  'Old  Folks 


102  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 


at  Home.'  I  am  glad  to  know  you."  As  I  spoke,  the  tears  came  to 
his  eyes,  and  he  said : 

"Pardon  my  tears,  young  lady,  you  have  spoken  the  first  kind 
words  I  have  heard  in  a  long  time.  God  bless  you."  I  gave  him 
both  hands,  saying: 

"They  will  not  be  the  last."  I  asked  him  to  sit  at  my  desk  awhile, 
and  get  acquainted.  He  seemed  pleased,  but  apologized  for  his 
appearance.  He  was  assured  it  was  not  his  dress,  but  Mr.  Foster 
I  wanted  to  see.  I  judged  him  to  be  about  forty-five  years  of  age, 
but  the  lines  of  care  upon  his  face,  and  the  stamp  of  disease,  gave  him 
that  appearance.  (He  was  actually  only  thirty-seven.)  We  had  a 
long  conversation. 

When  this  first  visit  was  ended,  Mr.  Foster  thanked  me  for  my 
interest  in  him,  and  said  it  had  done  him  a  world  of  good  to  have 
some  one  to  talk  with.  He  had  no  one  to  call  a  friend.  I  asked  him 
to  let  me  be  a  friend,  and  perhaps  in  my  humble  way,  I  might  be 
of  service  to  him.  I  said  if  he  would  bring  me  his  manuscript  songs 
that  he  had  not  been  able  to  write  out,  I  would  do  the  work  for  him 
at  his  dictation.  He  was  very  grateful,  and  from  that  time  until  he 
died  I  was  permitted  to  be  his  helper. 

When  he  brought  me  his  rude  sketches,  written  on  wrapping 
paper,  picked  up  in  a  grocery  store,  and  he  told  me  he  wrote  them 
while  sitting  upon  a  box  or  barrel,  I  knew  he  had  no  home.  I  asked 
him  if  he  had  a  room,  he  said: 

"No,  I  do  not  write  much,  as  I  have  no  material  or  conveniences." 
He  then  told  me  that  he  slept  in  the  cellar  room  of  a  little  house 
owned  by  an  old  couple,  down  in  Elizabeth  Street,  in  the  "Five 
Points,"  who  knew  who  he  was,  and  charged  him  nothing.  He  said 
he  was  comfortable,  so  I  suppose  he  had  a  bed. 

One  day  Mr.  Foster  came  to  my  desk  with  the  sketch  of  a  song 
entitled  "When  Old  Friends  Were  Here."  He  remarked  it  might 
be  his  last  song,  and  that  would  be  the  end  of  "Foster." 

As  he  prepared  to  leave  the  store,  it  was  growing  dark,  and  as  he 
appeared  weaker  than  usual,  I  offered  to  go  with  him  to  the  street. 
As  I  helped  him  into  the  stage,  he  said  very  earnestly,  "You  are  my 
only  friend,"  and  as  the  door  closed  he  waved  his  hand,  and  the  last 
words  I  heard  were  "God  bless  you."  I  am  sure  they  were  his  last 
words  on  earth. 

The  next  day  he  did  not  call  for  his  song,  but  the  evening  paper 
appeared  with  a  great  headline,  "Stephen  C.  Foster,  dead."  "At 
eleven  o'clock  last  night"  (the  paper  stated)  "a  policeman  heard 
groans,  in  the  cellar  of  a  house  he  was  passing,  and  upon  entering 
found  a  man  bleeding  to  death,  from  a  gash  in  the  throat.  He  had 
evidently  risen  from  his  bed  for  some  water,  and  had  fallen  over  a 
broken  pitcher.  He  was  taken  to  Bellevue  Hospital  in  an  uncon- 
scious condition,  and  passed  away  at  one  o'clock.  He  was  identified 
by  a  manuscript  in  his  pocket  with  his  name  upon  it.  Relatives  in 
Pennsylvania  claimed  the  remains."  Nothing  more  concerning  his 
death  was  published. 

Stephen  Foster  may  have  at  one  time  lived  in  the  cellar 
room  of  a  house  on  Elizabeth  Street,  but  Mrs.  Duer  is 
mistaken  in  supposing  that  the  accident  which  led  to  his 
death  took  place  there. 


TRAGEDY 103 

The  "wrapping  paper,  picked  up  in  a  grocery  store," 
is  a  feature  of  all  Foster  reminiscences.  It  has  impressed 
itself  upon  the  history  of  American  music  in  a  manner 
positively  uncanny.  "Old  Dog  Tray"  is  alleged  to  have 
been  written  in  the  middle  of  the  night  on  an  old  piece 
of  brown  wrapping  paper  which  happened  to  be  handy. 
Various  other  of  the  songs  are  reputed  to  have  been  jotted 
down  on  this  justly  famous  sheet;  in  fact,  no  biography 
of  Stephen  Foster  can  be  considered  complete  without 
brown  wrapping  paper.  One  version  even  goes  so  far 
as  to  have  the  wrapping  paper  stained  with  grease  from 
the  articles  of  food  which  it  once  enclosed.  Another 
biographer  uses  the  wrapping  paper  as  a  starting-point 
from  which  to  deduce  the  wholly  incorrect  supposition 
that  Stephen  was  a  clerk  in  a  grocery  store,  and  that 
during  the  day  he  waited  upon  customers  from  behind  a 
counter,  while  at  night,  when  all  around  was  still,  he 
sat  in  his  lonely  attic  and  dreamed  of  his  absent  loved 
ones,  the  while  he  consigned  his  immortal  melodies  to 
brown  wrapping  paper  by  the  flickering  light  of  a  single 
candle.  Just  how  important  a  part  brown  wrapping 
paper  played  in  Stephen's  life  we  can  never  know,  but 
it  has  become  so  ineradicably  connected  with  his  memory 
that  any  attempt  to  dissociate  it  at  this  time  would  be 
sheer  cruelty.  All  honor  to  its  cherished  memory! 

George  Cooper  tells  of  meeting  Stephen  Foster  in  the 
back-room  of  a  disreputable  grocery  on  the  corner  of 
Hester  and  Christie  Streets.  According  to  the  custom 
of  that  time,  the  front  of  the  shop  was  devoted  to  the 
sale  of  groceries,  but  back  of  a  partition  was  a  small 
room  which  was  used  as  a  saloon,  and  here  Stephen  spent 
much  of  his  time.  Mr.  Cooper  describes  him  as  a  man 
utterly  careless  of  his  appearance,  having  apparently 
lost  the  incentive  power  of  self-respect.  He  lived  at 
15  Bowery,  in  a  cheap  lodging-house  where  he  paid  25 
cents  a  night.  He  told  Mr.  Cooper  that  he  had  had  a 
regular  income  of  $1,500.00  a  year  from  his  songs,  and 


104  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

Mr.  Cooper  is  under  the  impression  that,  although  in 
destitution  himself,  he  was  at  this  time  supporting  his 
wife  and  daughter  in  Pittsburgh.  He  was  very  fond  of 
the  poetry  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  and  recited  long  extracts 
from  it  with  thrilling  effect. 

Young  Mr.  Cooper  was  something  of  a  poet,  and  the 
two  formed  a  partnership.  The  first  of  the  songs  of  which 
Cooper  wrote  the  words  was  published  in  1863  and  in 
less  than  a  year  they  wrote  and  published  eighteen. 
These  songs  they  sold  for  whatever  they  could  get  for 
them,  which  was  never  much.  The  song  "Willie  Has 
Gone  to  the  War"  was  written  one  morning,  and  after 
it  was  finished,  Stephen  rolled  it  up  and  tucking  it  under 
his  arm,  said,  "Well,  where  shall  we  put  this  one?" 
Cooper  says  that  he  remembers  it  was  a  cold,  raw,  winter 
day,  snow  falling  drearily,  and  the  pavements  covered 
with  slush.  Stephen's  shoes  had  holes  in  them  and  he 
had  no  overcoat,  but  he  seemed  oblivious  to  discomfort 
and  misery.  As  the  author  and  composer  proceeded  up 
Broadway,  they  passed  Wood's  Music  Hall,  and  the 
proprietor,  standing  in  the  lobby,  hailed  them  as  they 
passed  with  the  question,  "What  have  you  got  there, 
Steve?"  The  song  was  sold  then  and  there,  Wood  paying 
$10  cash,  $15  more  to  be  paid  at  the  box-office  that 
evening. 

Stephen  called  Cooper  "the  left  wing  of  the  song  fac- 
tory," and  most  of  their  songs  were  written  and  sold  in 
very  much  the  same  manner  as  "Willie  Has  Gone  to  the 
War."  They  sold  all  of  their  songs  for  cash,  receiving 
no  royalties  on  any  of  them.  This  was  not  important 
to  Cooper,  who  was  a  youth  of  about  twenty,  living  at 
home  with  his  parents,  and  song-writing  was  something 
of  a  pastime  for  him,  but  to  Stephen,  entirely  dependent 
upon  his  songs  for  livelihood,  it  meant  destitution.  His 
clothes  were  poor  and  sadly  worn,  a  fact  to  which  he 
seemed  totally  indifferent.  Cooper  says  that  on  several 
occasions  friends  gave  him  clothes,  but  usually  Stephen 


STEPHEN  FOSTER  AND  GEORGE  COOPER 

After  an  ambrotype  taken  in  New  York  in  1863 

(From  the  collection  of  Frederick  M.  Steele) 


TRAGEDY 105 

appeared  again  after  a  few  days  in  his  ragged  suit  and 
glazed  cap.  This  cap  seems  to  have  been  an  outstanding 
feature  of  his  appearance  in  these  last  days,  as  it  is 
mentioned  by  several  biographers. 

This  sorry  picture  of  Stephen's  disreputable  appear- 
ance is  somewhat  belied  by  the  ambrotype  of  Stephen 
and  George  Cooper,  taken  in  1863,  only  a  few  months 
before  his  death.  True,  his  good  clothes  may  have  been 
assumed  for  that  occasion  only,  but  the  picture  is  hardly 
that  of  a  man  in  the  last  stages  of  alcoholism.  Unfor- 
tunately the  ambrotype  is  not  a  good  one,  and  both  the 
faces  are  blurred,  but  the  likeness  of  Stephen  is  distinct 
enough  to  give  the  lie  to  those  of  his  biographers  who 
describe  his  face  as  that  of  Silenus. 

Although  he  drank  constantly,  Cooper  says  that 
Stephen  was  never  intoxicated.  He  was  indifferent  to 
food,  often  making  a  meal  of  apples  or  turnips  from  the 
grocery  shop,  peeling  them  with  a  large  pocket-knife. 
The  "rum"  he  drank  was  concocted  by  the  barkeeper 
from  French  spirits  and  brown  sugar,  and  was  kept  in 
a  keg. 

He  wrote  with  great  facility  and  without  the  aid  of  a 
piano.  If  no  music-paper  was  handy,  he  would  take 
whatever  paper  he  could  find,  and,  ruling  the  lines  on  it, 
proceed  without  hesitation  to  write.  He  seemed  never 
at  a  loss  for  a  melody,  and  the  simple  accompaniment 
caused  him  no  trouble.  These  first  drafts  were  taken 
out  and  sold  to  a  publisher  or  theatre  manager,  practi- 
cally without  correction.  To  this  habit  is  evidently  due 
the  "brown  wrapping  paper"  legend,  as  Cooper  says 
that  he  would  use  brown  wrapping  paper  if  he  couldn't 
find  anything  else. 

George  Cooper  enlisted  in  the  22nd  New  York  Regi- 
ment in  1862,  and  was  at  the  front  during  a  large  part  of 
this  year.  He  was  with  the  same  regiment  in  1863,  serv- 
ing in  the  Gettysburg  campaign,  returning  to  New  York 
upon  the  disbanding  of  the  regiment  on  July  24th,  1863. 


106  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

From  this  time  until  Stephen's  death,  a  few  months 
later,  they  continued  their  collaboration.  Cooper's 
story  of  Stephen's  death,  which  is  undoubtedly  the  true 
one,  is  as  follows: 

"Early  one  winter  morning  I  received  a  message  say- 
ing that  my  friend  had  met  with  an  accident;  I  dressed 
hurriedly  and  went  to  15  Bowery,  the  lodging-house 
where  Stephen  lived,  and  found  him  lying  on  the  floor 
in  the  hall,  blood  oozing  from  a  cut  in  his  throat  and 
with  a  bad  bruise  on  his  forehead.  Steve  never  wore  any 
night-clothes  and  he  lay  theie  on  the  floor,  naked,  and 
suffering  horribly.  He  had  wonderful  big  brown  eyes 
and  they  looked  up  at  me  with  an  appeal  I  can  never 
forget.  He  whispered,  Tm  done  for,'  and  begged  for  a 
drink,  but  before  I  could  get  it  for  him,  the  doctor  who 
had  been  sent  for  arrived  and  forbade  it.  He  started  to 
sew  up  the  gash  in  Steve's  throat,  and  I  was  horrified  to 
observe  that  he  was  using  black  thread.  'Haven't  you 
any  white  thread, '  I  asked,  and  he  said  no,  he  had  picked 
up  the  first  thing  he  could  find.  I  decided  the  doctor  was 
not  much  good  and  I  went  down  stairs  and  got  Steve 
a  big  drink  of  rum,  which  I  gave  him  and  which  seemed 
to  help  him  a  lot.  We  put  his  clothes  on  him  and  took 
him  to  the  hospital.  In  addition  to  the  cut  on  his  throat 
and  the  bruise  on  his  forehead,  he  was  suffering  from  a 
bad  burn  on  his  thigh,  caused  by  the  overturning  of  a 
spirit  lamp  used  to  boil  water.  This  had  happened  sev- 
eral days  before,  and  he  had  said  nothing  about  it,  nor 
done  anything  for  it.  All  the  time  we  were  caring  for 
him,  he  seemed  terribly  weak  and  his  eyelids  kept  flutter- 
ing. I  shall  never  forget  it. 

"I  went  back  again  to  the  hospital  to  see  him,  and  he 
said  nothing  had  been  done  for  him,  and  he  couldn't  eat 
the  food  they  brought  him.  When  I  went  back  again  the 
next  day  they  said  'Your  friend  is  dead.'  His  body  had 
been  sent  down  into  the  morgue,  among  the  nameless 
dead.  I  went  down  to  look  for  it.  There  was  an  old 


TRAGEDY  107 


man  sitting  there,  smoking  a  pipe.  I  told  him  what  I 
wanted  and  he  said  'Go  look  for  him.'  I  went  around 
peering  into  the  coffins,  until  I  found  Steve's  body.  It 
was  taken  care  of  by  Winterbottom,  the  undertaker,  in 
Broome  Street,  and  removed  from  Bellevue.  The  next 
day  his  brother  Morrison,  and  Steve's  widow,  arrived. 
They  stayed  at  the  St.  Nicholas  Hotel.  When  Mrs.i 
Foster  entered  the  room  where  Steve's  body  was  lying, 
she  fell  on  her  knees  before  it,  and  remained  for  a  long 
time." 

The  body  was  sent  back  to  Pittsburgh,  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad  and  the  Adams  Express  Company  refus- 
ing any  remuneration  for  their  services. 

The  train  met  with  an  accident  at  a  point  about  five 
miles  above  Tyrone,  where  a  bridge  across  the  Little 
Juniata  gave  way,  dropping  two  passenger  coaches  into 
the  stream;  but  the  baggage  car,  containing  Stephen's 
body,  was  not  affected  by  the  wreck.  The  funeral  took 
place  in  Trinity  Church,  Pittsburgh,  January  21st,  1864. 
The  music  was  in  charge  of  Henry  Kleber,  and  according 
to  the  Pittsburgh  'Commercial'  of  January  22nd: 

Rev.  Swope,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  assisted  by  Dr.  Page  of 
Christ  Church,  Alleghany,  conducted  the  services.  There  was  a 
large  attendance  at  the  church,  a  goodly  number  of  which  followed 
the  remains  to  their  last  resting  place  on  earth.  After  a  chant  by 
the  choir,  the  Episcopal  service  was  read  by  Dr.  Page.  The  hymn 
commencing, 

Vital  spark  of  heavenly  flame, 

Quit,  oh  quit  this  mortal  frame! 

was  sung  by  Mr.  H.  Kleber,  to  an  air  from  the  Oratorio,  "Joseph 
and  His  Brethren."  After  which  the  remains  were  placed  in  the 
hearse  and  the  cortege  moved  off.  At  the  cemetery  gate  the  remains 
were  met  by  the  Citizen's  Brass  Band,  which  performed,  "Come 
Where  My  Love  Lies  Dreaming"  and  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home," 
which  to  our  mind,  were  sadly  and  impressively  appropriate.  The 
spot  selected  for  his  final  sleep  is  in  the  most  lovely  part  of  the  ceme- 
tery, and  alongside  of  his  father  and  mother. 

There  were  no  "great  headlines  in  the  papers,"  al- 
though several  of  the  newspapers  published  obituary 
notices,  notably  the  New  York  "Evening  Post,"  which 


108  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

compared  him  to  Donizetti,  as  "a  finder  of  many  melo- 
dies," and  the  Philadelphia  "Age."  It  is  said  that  the 
Pittsburgh  and  Alleghany  banks  and  schools  were  closed 
on  the  day  of  the  funeral,  although  no  reference  to  this 
is  made  in  the  accounts  of  the  funeral  published  the  next 
day  in  the  Pittsburgh  papers. 

Stephen  Foster's  grave  in  Alleghany  Cemeteryjis 
marked  by  a  simple  marble  stone,  on  which  are  the 
words : 

Stephen  C.  Foster, 

of  Pittsburgh. 

Born  July  4,  1826, 

Died  January  13,  1864. 


The  Grave  of  Stephen  C.  Foster 


VIII 
THE  COMPOSER 

As  a  composer,  Stephen  Foster  is  a  paradox.  The 
wonder  is  that  anyone  who  could  write  so  well,  could  at 
the  same  time  write  so  poorly.  Was  he  a  man  of  mediocre 
talent,  who  stumbled  almost  by  accident  upon  a  few 
nuggets  of  pure  gold  in  the  midst  of  much  of  little  worth, 
or  was  he  endowed  with  a  great  gift  which  remained  for 
the  most  part  mute  and  found  expression  only  in  a  few 
brief  moments  of  song? 

He  had  practically  no  constructive  ability.  So  far  as 
the  first  impulse  of  his  inspiration  could  carry  him,  he 
went,  but  no  farther.  Judged  by  the  standards  of  musi- 
cal composition,  nearly  all  of  his  one-hundred  and  sev- 
enty or  more  songs  are  on  the  same  level.  These  songs 
were  written  throughout  a  period  of  about  twenty  years, 
during  which  time  he  neither  gained  nor  lost  in  the  power 
of  expression.  His  death,  at  thirty-seven,  found  him  as 
a  composer  just  about  where  he  had  been  at  the  begin- 
ning of  his  career.  Both  melody  and  harmony  are  of  the 
utmost  simplicity.  He  could  neither  develop  a  melody 
nor  vary  his  harmony.  His  melodies  repeat  themselves 
monotonously,  and  he  was  content  with  a  few  simple 
chords  and  modulations.  And  yet  when  his  inspiration 
is  of  so  pure  and  exalted  a  nature  as  it  is  in  "The  Old 
Kentucky  Home,"  or  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home,"  the 
very  limitations  of  his  power  become  virtues,  resulting 
in  a  simplicity  and  directness  of  utterance  which  no 
amount  of  erudition  and  sophistication  could  have 
equalled  in  sincerity  and  potency.  He  put  the  best  of 
himself  into  the  composition  of  these  songs,  and  it  is 
because  they  are  the  honest  expression  of  real  emotion 
that  they  found  their  way  directly  and  at  once  to  the 
world's  heart. 

109 


110  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

In  order  to  understand  Foster's  limitations  as  a  musi- 
cian, it  is  necessary  to  realize  the  conditions  of  his  early 
environment.  For  the  proper  development  of  artistic 
expression,  an  old  and  well  established  civilization  is 
necessary.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  development  of 
the  musician,  i.  e.,  the  composer,  the  man  who  produces 
music.  The  other  arts,  literature,  painting,  sculpture, 
and  the  drama,  are  more  or  less  imitative  and  drawn 
directly  from  life  and  experience,  but  music  is  esoteric 
in  its  nature,  and,  for  its  proper  expression,  demands  not 
only  the  power  and  impulse  to  create,  but  also  initiation 
into  the  forms  and  formulae  of  the  art  itself.  This  eso- 
teric quality  distinguishes  music  from  all  other  activ- 
ities of  the  human  spirit,  even  religious  aspiration,  which 
it  most  closely  resembles.* 

It  is  this  quality  also  which  explains  the  fact  that,  in 
all  the  cycles  of  civilization,  music  has  always  been  the 
last  of  the  arts  to  reach  its  full  development.  Music, 
as  we  now  know  it,  did  not  find  itself  until  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  although  for  the  majority, 
even  those  most  musically  endowed,  there  is  little  of  vital 
interest  or  meaning  prior  to  Johann  Sebastian  Bach, 
nearly  one  hundred  years  later.  One  has  only  to  glance 
at  the  achievements  at  this  period  in  other  arts  to  realize 
how  long  music  had  been  a-borning.  That  American 
composers  lag  behind  their  European  contemporaries 
both  in  numbers  and  in  the  quality  of  their  work,  does 
not  argue  an  inferior  natural  musical  endowment,  nor 
lack  of  aspiration,  but  merely  means  that  an  American 
has  farther  to  go  to  reach  the  goal  than  a  European. 

Perhaps  no  one  can  fully  realize  this  important  truth 
who  has  not  lived,  at  least  for  a  time,  in  a  primitive  com- 
munity. A  log-cabin  may  produce  an  Abraham  Lincoln, 
but  it  can  never  produce  a  Mozart  or  a  Beethoven.  The 
American  people  are  drawing  farther  and  farther  away 
from  the  log-cabin,  but  a  study  of  the  comparative  stages 
*  Cf.  Richard  Wagner's  "Beethoven." 


THE  COMPOSER 


of  musical  development  of  the  older  Atlantic  states  and 
those  of  the  Middle  West,  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the 
Pacific  Coast,  will  prove  that  the  principle  is  still  effec- 
tive. A  great  composer  may  yet  "come  out  of  the  West," 
but  the  degree  of  his  greatness  will  depend  very  largely 
upon  just  how  early  in  his  life  he  "comes  out." 

The  amount  of  musical  culture  to  be  found  in  Pitts- 
burgh during  the  formative  years  of  Stephen's  boyhood 
was  negligible.  Pianos,  and,  indeed,  all  musical  instru- 
ments, were  extremely  rare  west  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains in  the  1830's;  and  it  is  doubtful  if  Stephen  heard 
much  music  of  any  kind  during  these  early  years.  Even 
more  important  than  this,  however,  was  the  prevailing 
attitude  toward  music.  As  we  have  indicated,  the  real 
turning-point  of  his  career  was  in  his  boyhood  and  youth, 
before  he  had  made  more  than  a  few  efforts  at  musical 
composition.  In  the  early  development  of  a  new  com- 
munity, every  effort  of  the  people  is  devoted  toward 
material  progress.  Forests  must  be  razed,  roads  and 
houses  built,  the  ground  tilled  and  the  crops  gathered 
and  utilized.  In  most  of  our  American  communities,  the 
earliest  settlers  at  the  first  possible  opportunity  laid  the 
foundations  of  education  and  began  training  the  intellect 
of  the  younger  generation.  Artistic  culture,  which  may 
be  called  the  third  stage  of  development,  must  of  neces- 
sity remain  for  a  long  time  dormant. 

Western  Pennsylvania,  during  Stephen  Foster's  boy- 
hood, was  making  rapid  progress  in  the  evolution  of  its 
materialistic  civilization,  and  had  already  entered  upon 
the  pursuit  of  intellectual  culture,  but  the  cultivation  of 
art,  in  its  manifold  forms,  had  not  even  been  begun. 
The  real  business  of  life,  to  these  people,  and  to  most 
Americans  even  in  this  present  day,  consisted  of  farming, 
manufacturing  or  trading;  in  other  words,  the  production 
and  manipulation  of  material.  Certain  other  pursuits 
requiring  more  or  less  cultivation  of  the  mind,  such  as  law 
(and  its  corollary  "politics"),  medicine  and  the  sciences, 


112  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

contributing  as  they  do  toward  material  prosperity  and 
well-being,  were  also  held  in  esteem.  Any  adult  male 
human  being  who  could  not  or  would  not  make  himself 
of  value  to  the  community  in  any  of  these  lines  was  worse 
than  useless.  Music,  water-color  painting  and  em- 
broidery were  pleasing  accomplishments  for  young  ladies 
whose  social  position  warranted  their  indulgence  in  such 
unproductive  pastimes.  It  was  known  that  there  had 
been  artists  in  times  past,  for  their  names  are  to  be  read 
in  history;  there  were  known  to  be  certain  opera  singers 
and  others  who  devoted  their  lives  to  musical  activity, 
but  they  were  like  beings  from  another  planet,  always 
"foreigners,"  "Signer"  or  "Madame,"  a  little  to  be  pitied 
and  a  little  to  be  scorned.  This  attitude  of  mind  has 
not  entirely  vanished  from  the  land  even  in  this  Year  of 
Grace. 

Stephen  Foster's  career  is  a  good  example  of  what 
happens  when  a  musical  soul  is  placed  in  an  unmusical 
environment.  Nothing  ever  takes  the  place  of  instinctive 
and  intuitive  culture,  and  this  is  absorbed  unconsciously 
during  the  early  years  of  life.  No  amount  of  study  and 
industry  can  develop  to  its  fullest  possibilities  the  talent 
of  one  whose  childhood  is  barren  of  music.  Neither  pov- 
erty, nor  the  material  conditions  surrounding  his  early 
life,  thwarted  the  development  of  Stephen  Foster's 
genius.  The  answer  to  the  riddle  is  to  be  found  in  the 
mental  atmosphere  in  which  he  found  himself. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Stephen  Foster  ever  at- 
tempted to  overcome  the  deficiencies  of  his  early  musical 
education.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  either  content  with 
his  achievements  or,  feeling  that  the  struggle  was  hope- 
less, lacked  the  courage  to  begin  it. 

It  may  be  seriously  doubted  whether  greater  technical 
facility  would  have  improved  his  music  or  achieved  for 
him  a  greater  name  in  history.  The  general  average  of 
his  work  might  have  been  higher,  but  his  best  songs  might 
have  lost  something  of  the  sincerity  and  naive  charm 


THE  COMPOSER 113 

which  are  their  greatest  attribute.  Limited  as  it  was, 
his  technical  equipment  was  exactly  suited  to  the  pro- 
duction of  such  a  song  as  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home." 

It  would  be  futile  to  compare  him  with  any  of  the 
great  men  of  music.  The  circumstances  of  his  life,  the 
environments  of  his  mind,  were  so  totally  different  from 
those  surrounding  any  of  the  acknowledged  masters  of 
the  Art,  that  any  speculations  of  this  kind  would  be  idle. 
He  bears  some  resemblance  to  Schubert.  Who  can  say 
what  would  have  been  the  sum  of  Franz  Schubert's 
achievements  had  he  been  born  in  Pittsburgh  in  1826? 

Foster's  melodies  display  a  surprising  vigor;  they 
abound  in  wide  intervals,  the  initial  phrase  frequently 
extending  over  an  octave,  a  characteristic  said  to  be 
indicative  of  an  active  temperament  and  an  energetic 
mind.  Intervals  of  a  fourth,  a  fifth  and  a  sixth  are  quite 
common,  while  the  leap  of  an  octave  occurs  often  enough 
to  be  noted  as  a  characteristic.  Among  the  melodies  in 
which  the  octave  leap  occurs  are  those  of  the  songs 
"Uncle  Ned,"  "Massa's  in  the  Cold,  Cold  Ground," 
"The  Old  Folks  at  Home,"  "Come  Where  My  Love  Lies 
Dreaming,"  "Willie  Has  Gone  to  the  War,"  "Nell  and  I," 
and  the  Schubertian  "Open  Thy  Lattice,  Love,"  written 
at  sixteen. 

The  repetitiousness  of  Foster's  melodies  is  such  that 
one  cannot  fail  to  wonder  that  they  exert  such  an  influ- 
ence upon  the  listener  as  they  do.  Even  among  the  folk- 
songs and  the  simple  tunes  to  which  they  can  be  com- 
pared, few  are  as  rudimentary  as  they.  For  example,  let 
us  analyze  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home,"  which,  for  wide- 
spread  popularity,  is  the  most  successful  of  his  songs. 
The  verse  is  composed  of  a  four-bar  phrase  which  is 
repeated  four  times,  twice  with  a  semi-cadence  (dominant 
seventh) ,  and  twice  with  a  tonic  cadence.  The  beginning 
of  the  chorus  presents  a  new  phrase  of  four  measures, 
answered  by  the  verse-phrase  with  the  complete  cadence. 
The  song  is  provided  with  a  "prelude"  and  "postlude" 


114  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

for  piano  which  are  nothing  but  duplicates,  an  octave 
higher,  of  the  first  two  lines  of  the  verse.  In  other  words, 
we  have  a  ten-line  musical  verse  of  which  nine  lines  are 
identical.  The  musical  material  from  which  the  song  is 
made  proves  to  be  two  four-measure  phrases.  The  har- 
monic texture  is  as  naive  as  the  melody.  There  are  no 
modulations  whatever,  and  only  the  three  primary 
chords  are  employed,  tonic,  dominant  (seventh)  and 
subdominant,  all  of  which  appear  in  the  root  position, 
except  one  subdominant  chord  which  is  in  a  second  inver- 
sion, f  This  is,  indeed,  music  in  ''words  of  one  syllable," 
and  it  is  a  striking  evidence  of  the  beauty  and  potency 
of  Foster's  inspiration  that  his  songs  have  won  the  affec-  / 
tion  of  the  musically  sophisticated,  as  well  as  of  the 
unlearned. 

"Massa's  in  the  Cold,  Cold  Ground"  is  fashioned  in 
the  same  manner  as  "The  Old  Folks  at  Home."  The 
four-line  verse  is  made  of  one  phrase,  occurring  twice  with 
dominant  and  twice  with  tonic  ending;  the  chorus  of  two 
lines  introduces  one  new  phrase  and  repeats  the  original 
one.  There  are  no  modulations,  only  three  chords,  all 
in  the  root  position  except  a  single  second  inversion  of 
the  subdominant.  The  melodic  outline  of  "My  Old 
Kentucky  Home"  is  on  the  same  pattern,  although  it 
contains  one  modulation  to  the  key  of  the  dominant, 
and  there  are  several  chord  inversions.  The  formula  is 
varied  slightly  in  "Old  Black  Joe,"  the  fourth  line  of  the 
verse  being  new  material ;  the  familiar  modulation  to  the 
key  of  the  dominant  occurs  in  this  song  also.  Foster 
seldom  uses  any  other  modulation,  although  there  are  a 
few  instances  when  the  key  of  the  subdominant  is  used, 
and  a  few  changes  from  major  to  relative  minor,  and  vice 
versa.  He  made  sparing  use  of  the  secondary  chords,  one 
of  the  most  successful  instances  of  their  employment  be- 
ing in  the  song  "Ah,  May  the  Red  Rose  Live  Alway." 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  movement  of  protest 
against  the  use  of  certain  of  Foster's  songs  in  the  public 


THE  COMPOSER 


schools.  The  agitation  reached  a  climax  recently  in 
Boston,  where  a  book  of  "Forty  Best  Songs,"  compiled 
for  school  use,  was  withdrawn  by  the  Boston  School 
Committee  because  it  contained  seven  songs  by  Stephen 
Foster  in  which  occurred  the  words  "nigger,"  "darky," 
and  "Massa."  It  was  claimed  by  the  protesting  negroes 
that  these  words  were  used  as  epithets  and  as  terms  of 
reproach,  and  that  their  children  were  jeered  at  unmerci- 
fully as  a  result  of  singing  the  songs.  The  Pastor  of  the 
First  African  M.  E.  Church  of  Boston  declared  that 
"The  songs  'Old  Black  Joe,'  'My  Old  Kentucky  Home,' 
and  'Massa's  in  the  Cold,  Cold,  Ground,'  are  an  insult  to 
the  whole  colored  race."  The  School  Committee  agreed  to 
withdraw  the  book,  but  their  action  was  severely  criti- 
cised throughout  the  country  and  brought  about  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  whole  subject  of  Foster's  songs  which 
demonstrated  how  wide-spread  is  their  popularity  and 
how  deep  the  affection  in  which  they  are  held. 

There  may  be  some  cause  for  complaint  against  the 
perpetuation  of  such  a  song  as  "Oh  Susanna,"  in  which 
the  negro  appears  only  as  a  buffoon,  a  song  typifying  an 
attitude  toward  the  negro  which  has  long  since  died  out, 
but  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  singing  of  such 
songs  as  "Old  Black  Joe"  and  "My  Old  Kentucky 
Home"  can  humiliate  the  colored  race.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  would  seem  that  these  songs  are  a  distinct 
tribute  to  the  colored  race,  being  among  the  permanent 
contributions  to  American  literature  inspired  by  the 
negro,  comparable  to  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  and  "Uncle 
Remus."  Paul  Lawrence  Dunbar,  the  negro  poet,  makes 
frequent  use  of  the  objectionable  words.  It  is  impossible 
to  eliminate  from  history  the  story  of  the  Civil  War, 
nor  should  the  younger  negroes  be  allowed  to  grow  up  in 
ignorance  of  the  fact  that  to  secure  their  freedom  the 
white  people  of  the  North  fought  for  four  years,  gave 
freely  of  their  lives  and  treasure,  and  with  their  hearts' 
blood  won  for  the  negroes  the  blessings  of  life,  liberty  and 


116  STEPHEN  COLLINS  FOSTER 

the  pursuit  of  happiness.  The  life  of  the  American  people 
is  mirrored  in  their  literature,  in  which  the  songs  of 
Foster  occupy  an  exalted  and  imperishable  place. 

Stephen  Foster  touched  but  one  chord  in  the  gamut  of 
human  emotions,  but  he  sounded  that  strain  supremely 
well.  His  song  is  of  that  nostalgia  of  the  soul  which  is 
inborn  and  instinctive  to  all  humanity,  a  homesickness 
unaffected  by  time  or  space.  It  is  a  theme  which  has 
always  made  up  a  large  part  of  the  world's  poetry,  and 
will  always  continue  to  do  so  as  long  as  human  hearts 
yearn  for  love  and  aspire  toward  happiness.  Among 
all  the  poets  who  have  harped  the  sorrows  of  Time  and 
Change,  no  song  rings  truer  than  that  of  Stephen  Foster. 
We  have  traced,  as  best  we  may,  the  story  of  his  life 
from  a  bright  happy  childhood  into  the  dismal  shadows 
of  failure  and  death.  From  the  unpromising  soil  in  which 
he  grew,  he  was  able  to  distill  by  some  strange  alchemy 
of  the  soul  such  sweet  magic  of  melody  as  to  win  an 
immortality  far  beyond  his  dreaming.  These  wild- 
flowers  of  music  which  blossomed,  unwatched  and  un- 
te tided,  from  unsuspected  seeds,  have  found  for  them- 
selves a  spot  which  is  all  their  own,  where  they  may 
bloom  forever  in  Fields  Elysian. 


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